An Equal Partner
by Solea
Summary: Sarah inadvertently wishes herself back into Jareth's power and reluctantly agrees to marry him so that she can visit her family. Chapter 25 up!!
1. I wish

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from "Labyrinth". Not even their tights.  
  
The applause hit her like a tsunami wave. A thundering of stamping, hoots and whistles rocked the theater as Sarah stepped out and bowed to the crowd. From her vantage point on stage, all she could see was a wash of white light, but she smiled broadly and blinked back her joyful tears as she, the director, and her cast of actors basked in the fruits of eight weeks of work.  
  
After the applause died down, she slipped backstage with the cast, congratulating them and joining in their usual irreverent humor as they cleaned off their makeup and got ready to go home for the night.  
  
"Joining us for drinks? We thought we'd head over to The Warty Toad after. Supposed to be a decent band tonight."  
  
Sarah looked up into the hopeful eyes of Peter Hopkins, one of technical assistants for the show and smiled regretfully.  
  
"Thanks, Peter, but I'm a little too tired for a crowd tonight. I'd kill the party spirit by falling asleep in my beer."  
  
"But then your snoring would make such lovely bubbles," he grinned. "Well.how about a quiet drink around the corner at Andy's - just the two of us? I'll buy."  
  
Sarah sighed inwardly and smiled. Peter was one of the many who pursued her. He was your typical decent guy - cute, kind, even emotionally stable, but Sarah knew herself well and by now had learned that any efforts she made to date would be hopeless.  
  
"You're the best, Peter, really, but I just don't think I'm up to it tonight."  
  
"Can I see you home then?" he asked not quite giving up hope, even though he knew her answer.  
  
"No need. I'm actually planning to take a cab and hit the sack as soon as I get home. Don't miss the fun! Anyway," she whispered, leaning in toward him with an air of conspiracy, "I think 'someone' would be very disappointed indeed if you missed out on tonight." Her eyes slid for a split second toward a pretty redhead with pert freckles who had been watching them with ill-concealed envy. Sarah knew that Wendy had been smitten with Peter ever since she had spotted his muscular form on top of a ladder working with the lights. Sarah thought they would make a great couple if Peter would just get a clue.  
  
"Okay," Peter sighed, "but we'll miss you. You can NOT run out on us this way next time. We NEED you to celebrate with us at the cast party!" he said in mock exasperation.  
  
"I wouldn't miss it for the world!" she laughed as she picked up her bags and headed for the door.  
  
Outside, the snow was swirling, but Sarah was able to hale a taxi quickly enough. Cabs were plentiful in the small theater districts after show time. When the cab stopped at her apartment building, Sarah paid the driver and bounded up the six flights to her tiny studio. Inside, things were pretty cramped, but she had managed to make the place home-y with a few plants, some artwork she'd bought off the street and several bookcases full of her favorite plays.  
  
Sarah had moved to New York when she was only nineteen and had since worked tirelessly to break into the acting scene. As an actress, she'd met with enormous success in small theaters and even in independent films; but her skills as a leader had become so apparent in rehearsals that she had decided to drop her acting career to pursue directing. Her first efforts had been small - a one-act here, a pub performance there - but they had received solid reviews in the local free weeklies. She was well on her way to a successful career as a director and felt, for the most part, that life couldn't be better.  
  
She peeled off her coat and turned up the thermostat, still thinking regretfully about Peter's invitation. Sarah was twenty-eight years old and had not had a date since she was twenty-four. She had tried - really tried - to be interested in the boys that had seemed to surround her ever since she had turned sixteen. When she was younger, she had endured their sloppy kisses thinking that she was just too inexperienced to appreciate their attention. As she had gotten older and the kisses had ceased to be sloppy, she'd realized to her horror that she couldn't bring even a spark of interest to light within herself for anyone. In college, she had spent a year or two dating constantly, thinking she just hadn't met "the one", but her reaction to the young men around her remained exactly nil. She'd even thought that maybe (just maybe) there was hope if she turned out to be a lesbian, except that while she knew many beautiful women, she had certainly never been sexually attracted to any of them.  
  
The year of her twenty-fourth birthday, she had finally given up. She would have assumed she was frigid except that she knew better. The mere thought of him was enough to turn her knees to jelly and make her cheeks flush crimson. In fact, when she had still been working as an actor, she had even tried to think of him whenever she was performing a love scene so that the scene would be believable. She was now famous with audiences for making the most intimate of scenes completely real. Among those in the know, she was also famous behind the curtain for never once having gotten involved with her leading man to achieve that effect.  
  
Thirteen years ago, she had lived the impossible. Sarah had wished for the goblins to take her brother Toby away and her wish had actually been granted! She had allowed herself to be thrown into another world to save him - and straight into the path of the most intriguing and seductive man she had ever known. Grappling with her own sanity, she had fought her way through the Labyrinth to the Goblin City beyond and defeated the Goblin King Jareth with the words that now haunted her daily: 'You have no power over me'.  
  
If her dating life was any indication, then she couldn't have been more wrong.  
  
Sarah was a strong person. When she had realized that she would never be satisfied with any man she met, she had sucked it up and made the best of things. Throwing herself into her work and her relationship with her family had been easier than facing the reasons she had chosen to remain single. She was very close with Toby, her father and her stepmother Karen, but when they pressed her about her love life, she told them (and quite believably) that besides them, her work was all that she cared about.  
  
Well.that wasn't quite true. She had kept in close touch with all of her friends from the Underground. She would call for them and they would appear in her mirror to chat or sometimes they would stop by for a real visit if time allowed.  
  
She kept those friendships a secret. Toby didn't remember the labyrinth as anything more than a dream and she had decided not to talk to him about it. While Sarah had been thrilled to discover a world outside her own, she figured that the rest of her family and friends would probably think she was nuts and so wisely kept her own counsel about her adventures.  
  
Although her Underground friends visited often, never once had she mentioned Jareth to any of them or ever asked after his welfare. That she hung on their every word for even the slightest mention of his name and made it a point to tell them that she wasn't interested in any of the men who had pursued her over the years made her feel incredibly stupid. She just couldn't help it.  
  
What she had hoped was only an adolescent crush had only seemed to deepen with time instead of tapering off like it should. Jareth was never far from her thoughts. No matter how hard she tried to focus on other things, her mind would keep straying to his penetrating mis-matched eyes, his golden hair and aquiline features, the way he moved with a lean, muscular grace. Dammit. She was doing it again.  
  
Jareth was EVIL for heavens sake! He had twisted her wishes, kidnapped her brother, and forced her run through his ungodly maze to save him - an adventure that had nearly cost her life several times along the way! He had even stooped so low as to play with her feelings - all in a desperate attempt to make her give up her quest so that he could keep her brother for himself.  
  
Sarah groaned inwardly at the thought. The quest alone wouldn't have been so bad. On some level she had enjoyed the labyrinth and their contest. She had risen to the challenge of Jareth's puzzles and had even secretly looked forward to his little "visits" in between just for the fun of sparring with him. But to think of herself helpless in his arms, whirling around the ballroom, almost ready to forget everything.and realizing that the whole fantasy existed only to make her forget.that he had only been laughing at her ridiculously girlish ideas of love the whole time..  
  
Even thirteen years later she wanted to die with humiliation at the thought of ever seeing him again. Jareth had touched a part of her that she had never shared with anyone so intimately and then ruthlessly used it against her. The bastard had even had the gall to try the same thing TWICE. He'd offered her "her dreams" yet again, just as she was poised to defeat him. It surprised her that it hadn't been any easier to turn him down that time, even knowing that the dreams he offered her were dreams he would mock her for having.  
  
But she had had a responsibility to Toby. He had been helpless and looked to her for protection. She would never, never have left him no matter what she might have wanted for herself.  
  
For Chrissakes, Sarah! Get a grip already. Stop mooning over your pathetic adolescent 'experience' with a puffed-up-baby-kidnapping-self-important- completely-insufferable-Goblin-King!! Arrrgh!!  
  
Why was this haunting her tonight? She punched the pillow on her pullout sofa bed, irritated when she realized that she wasn't going to get any sleep because of HIM again. Sarah turned on a lamp and slipped over to her mirror, hoping one of her friends from the Labyrinth would have time to pop over and keep her company.  
  
"Sir Didymus." she called softly. His courtly manners always made her feel every inch the fine "lady" and she loved the unbridled affection of Ambrosius. Perhaps a good romp with Ambrosius would be just the thing to set her mood to rights and exhaust her enough for sleep.  
  
"My lady!"  
  
Sarah only had time to hear the joyful bark before a bundle of fur ran into her at about a million miles an hour and started frantically licking her face.  
  
"Ambrosius!! AMBROSIUS!! You stop that ridiculous display right now or I'll.I'll."  
  
Sarah's laughter drowned out Sir Didymus's indignation. She cuddled and cooed over an extremely excited Ambrosius and turned to give her friend a warm hug.  
  
"Oh I missed you so much!"  
  
"Is aught amiss, my lady?" He reached up to touch her cheek and Sarah was surprised when his hand brushed tears.  
  
"Oh, no, no, no! I'm just so glad to see both of you!"  
  
Sir Didymus gave her a sharp look at that because she had cooked dinner for him and several of her other Underground friends only last week. They had stayed up all night watching old movies - an activity the Underground folks found fascinating. Actors and plays were a foreign thing to their world.  
  
"My lady.I would never suggest that you.ah...were not telling the truth. But.perhaps there is something bothering you that you haven't.um.thought about yet?"  
  
"Oh god, Didymus. I don't even know." At this point Sarah broke down sobbing while Sir Didymus helplessly tried to comfort her.  
  
"My lady! My lady! Say anything that I and my noble steed can'st do to ease your sorrows and it shall be done!" he vowed, tenderly stroking Sarah's long, sable tresses.  
  
Her green eyes flicked up to his warm brown ones. "Just.just tell me about everything happening in the Underground. I want to know about everyone."  
  
Sir Didymus looked deep into her eyes and a light clicked on in his mind. Impossible! She couldn't possibly! But then.well...they've both been so sad.  
  
He started out innocuously enough, filling her in on Hoggle's latest failed efforts to keep the fairy population under control and Ludo's experiments in using his abilities with the rocks to improve some of the walls of the labyrinth.  
  
Then he decided to drop the bomb.  
  
"My lady.and His Majesty asks after you often. He always wishes you well. He hasn't been the same man since you defeated him and left."  
  
Sarah gave a start and went utterly still. She didn't speak for a long moment and when she did, her words came through lips that had gone white.  
  
"What?" she whispered.  
  
Seeing her distress, Sir Didymus tried to back peddle. "My lady, I see that I've upset you. Forgive me for having mentioned His Majesty to you. I understand why any news of him might be less than welcome." Didymus kicked himself, wishing he'd kept his trap shut. He had thought that maybe she wanted news of the King. She had emphasized the word 'everyone' when she had asked him for news.  
  
"Oh," she said very softly.  
  
Sarah had been struck speechless by Didymus's comment and really couldn't think of anything to say.  
  
"Would you like me to stay here tonight and guard your hearth and home? I solemnly vow that no harm whatsoever will come to you as long as I stand watch." Didymus's gentle offer snapped Sarah out of her reverie and he saw a little color return to her face. Good.  
  
"Oh.no, no! What harm could possibly come to me here? I'm quite safe, Sir Didymus, though, as always, I know you are the most loyal and valiant of protectors!"  
  
He did hope he hadn't done the wrong thing by mentioning the Goblin King to her. His majesty had actually been quite kind to Sir Didymus. The Bog of Eternal Stench was as much like his native land as could be created in the labyrinth and Jareth had given him license to live there and oversee the Bog as he chose. Although he knew Jareth could at times be cruel and unreasonable, for the most part, Didymus actually found him to be a considerate ruler.  
  
The baby-snatching part of the King's job was less than savory, but it was also part of Jareth's duties to maintain an adequate goblin population. The goblins lived and died like any creatures, but could not reproduce on their own. Jareth had compromised and made a practice of snatching only abused and unwanted children. It's true that their lives as goblins left them dimmer-witted than they might have been as humans; but while Jareth was not the most patient of men with his minions, he did not abuse his goblins. As long as they lived under his rule, they lacked for nothing and enjoyed his protection.  
  
The only reason Sarah's brother had been snatched at all was because she had specifically asked the King to do so. Once Jareth had been called, he couldn't back down. Didymus would not generally have defied Jareth, but once he knew that the baby Sarah sought was actually wanted Aboveground, he was forced to take her side. After all, he was duty-sworn to protect any fair maiden in distress.  
  
At the time, Didymus thought that Jareth had been cruel to Sarah, but now he wondered if perhaps Jareth had been trying to protect himself? If Jareth really did have feelings for the fair lady, Didymus could see him being very cruel indeed. He suspected that Jareth was a king who knew more of lust and the kind of women that one shared no more than a night with than of deep love and a fair maiden who could rule by his side.  
  
It was also true that since Sarah had left the Underground, Jareth had been more miserable than Sir Didymus could remember in the 670 years he'd lived in the labyrinth. But after seeing Sarah's reaction to his previous comment, Sir Didymus decided not to upset her further.  
  
Sarah and Sir Didymus said their goodbyes. As soon as he disappeared into her mirror, she burst into tears for a second time. She wasn't exactly certain why she was crying, but she couldn't make herself stop. Finally her sobs tapered off. As she fell into an exhausted slumber she murmured his name for the first time in thirteen years, at last overcome by her loneliness.  
  
"Oh, Jareth, I wish you would come for me." she sighed as she drifted off to sleep. Sarah was so close to dreaming that she never knew she had spoken her wish aloud. 


	2. Wishes Granted

Disclaimer: I own nothing from "Labyrinth". If anyone from "Labyrinth" would like to sign him or herself over to my custody, he or she may petition to do so as long as the applicant meets the following requirements: tights, leather, mis-matched eyes.  
Chapter 2  
  
When she said his name, he reacted like a man who'd been shot. Standing stock-still, he let out a short gasp of breath, his eyes drinking in the image of her reflected in his crystal. Her sable hair was spread out across her pillow, her skin glowing like white rose petals and her lashes glistening with her tears. She was so beautiful it was painful to look at her. Finally, finally, finally. He had waited thirteen years for this chance and had no intention of letting her slip through his grasp. In fact, he would make certain that she would never leave him again.  
  
For Jareth, Sarah bordered on being an obsession. Yes, he still attended the duties of his kingdom with all the care of the best of monarchs. But for the past thirteen years, he had spent every spare minute of his time watching Sarah in his crystals. He'd actually been filled with a wild, possessive pride to see her girlish beauty blossom into radiant womanhood. His pride in her only increased as he watched the spoiled young girl who'd traveled his labyrinth grow into a skilled and diplomatic leader among her peers. He had been forced to admit that he truly admired her work and respected her relentless pursuit of her dreams. Her tactful yet assertive nature had allowed her to work miracles with her actors. He suspected that same nature might also work miracles with his minions. He'd even thought of establishing the first theater ever in the Underground, but chose to wait until she could be there to run it.  
  
He had been violently jealous when she had first started dating. He'd ached to be the first to kiss those soft, perfect lips and make her green eyes dance with pleasure. After he saw her reaction, or lack thereof to the many men who pursued her, his jealousy was replaced by wonder, and eventually, hope. Could she possibly be thinking of him? Was there even the smallest chance that these boys and young men couldn't measure up to.him? Sarah had seemed eager enough to date before she'd met him, even fighting with her parents on the topic; but after their meeting, she'd suddenly been reluctant to go out with the boys who asked her. Karen practically had to push her out the door to encourage her stepdaughter to do the "normal" things that others Sarah's age enjoyed. Jareth had simply watched and waited.  
  
Waiting had been torture. While Sarah had fought her way through his labyrinth, Jareth had yearned to seduce her into staying with him. He had known that it was too soon and that she was too young. Later, he'd been forced to admit that he was a clumsy oaf who had gone about it all wrong. He was accustomed to the kind of woman who could be bought, and was simultaneously dismayed and delighted when he found that Sarah was no such woman. She cared as deeply about her responsibility to her brother as he did about his to his kingdom. It was hard to argue with that.  
  
He had permitted her friends from the labyrinth to keep visiting her through the years - even encouraged it. He kept hoping her love for them would fuel her desire to return to the Underground, perhaps also fuel her desire to see him again when she could know that her friends were well and thriving, thanks to his efforts. He bitterly envied the warm hugs and kisses she bestowed upon all of them when they visited, but had decided to endure anything if it meant Sarah might be convinced to come back.  
  
After the exchange between Sarah and Sir Didymus, he had been uncertain as to whether to raise Didymus's rank or send him into exile. Now that Sarah had finally called his name and he could at last take her back with him, he decided to make Didymus an Earl.  
  
With the flick of a crystal, Jareth stood next to her, gazing down on her sleeping features. He felt like his heart was ready to thump through his chest. She was even more beautiful in person than she was when reflected in his crystals. He was glad that she couldn't see his hand tremble as he lightly smoothed an errant lock of hair from her face. He wasn't certain if he had a battle in front of him or not, but was determined to take her with him.  
  
And this time, she would have to stay. 


	3. Spirited Away

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from "Labyrinth". I guess there are some wishes that even Jareth can't grant.  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Sarah's eyelids fluttered as she felt something soft stroke down her cheek - soft.and leathery? Her eyelids flew open and she sat up with a start. The light of the full moon coming in from the window illuminated her room well enough for her to gaze around. She saw nothing and her room remained silent except for her own ragged breathing.  
  
Then she felt another soft touch, this time stroking her hair.  
  
Sarah whirled around with gasp and found herself gazing directly into his eyes, his gloved hand poised in the air from where he had touched her. She was certain then, that she had to be dreaming. Her jury was out on whether she was about to have the most beautiful dream she had ever known or the kind of nightmare that she would wake from screaming.  
  
As she looked at him, her heart seemed to stop and squeeze painfully. She took in his long silver-gold locks, pale aristocratic features, and slender, muscled build. He was everything she had ever wanted in a man and more. His black leather pants and waistcoat seemed molded to his form as he bent down toward her, his black cloak swirling. His mismatched eyes, one cerulean blue, the other an ocean green, seemed to hypnotize her. As she looked deeply into them, her terror grew at what she saw there, but she couldn't quite bring herself to move.  
  
"Hello, Sarah."  
  
His face remained serious as he gazed at her with an intensity she couldn't name and for a moment she remained frozen to the spot, her own eyes wide and frightened. In a flash, she vaulted out of bed and stood on the other side in her pajamas, facing him. It vaguely occurred to her that she was very glad it had been too chilly for her to sleep in the nude like she usually did. Thank god she'd been able to put the bed between them. Of course he was still between her and the door.  
  
"What do you want? Why are you here?" the questions tumbled out of her and her voice broke on the last word. She wanted to smack her forehead. He would know how frightened she was if she kept advertising it.  
  
"My dear Sarah, I am here because you called me."  
  
"But I didn't!"  
  
"But you did. I could not come here otherwise. I can only come in if I am invited."  
  
Shit! Had she invited him? Maybe she had murmured his name as she was drifting off. It just seemed so comforting at the time to say it. Had she wished to see him? Dear god, what had she done?  
  
"You were NOT invited. Now please.please go."  
  
Jareth's face remained impassive.  
  
"Sarah, you know I cannot do that. I am here at your invitation and also here as your guide."  
  
"My guide?"  
  
"To the Underground. You called me and I answered. You called me to take you home."  
  
"What?! I am home!! I'm happy HERE. I'm not going anywhere with you! I ran through your games and your traps and defeated your labyrinth. I saved my brother from your power fair and square - I even played by YOUR rules. I owe you nothing. I did not invite you here and you cannot take me back with you. You have no power over me!"  
  
"Ah.are you quite, quite certain of that, my love?"  
  
Her breath caught - in fear or because he'd called her 'his love' she couldn't say. She continued to edge away from him.  
  
This was not going the way Jareth had hoped at all. He'd certainly never wanted to frighten her so badly. He also had hoped to be more diplomatic. He'd wanted to invite her to come to the Underground with him very nicely and then transport her there on a lovely cloud - soft and comfortable, with a gorgeous view of his kingdom. Well, rats. He had let himself get backed into an autocratic corner and it looked like he would have to employ Plan B - physical force. He was also disappointed that she hadn't seemed just a teensier bit happy to see him.  
  
He tried again.  
  
"Why do you think it would be so awful? Come home with me. You could see your friends every day. You'd live in a palace. You would be royalty. Sarah, you could have anything you want."  
  
It was the worst thing he could have said. He watched the color drain from her face and realized his mistake. He was so angry with himself he could have dunked his head in the Bog of Eternal Stench. So it would have to be blatant kidnapping then.  
  
"Anything I want? I want to continue with my life! I love my family and I've worked hard to build my career and I'm finally happy with the work I'm doing! My life may not be perfect, Jareth, but it's mine and I can honestly say that I've done the best I can."  
  
"Sarah, you could have so much more.."  
  
"Right. Just let you rule me and then you'll be my slave? Jareth, the little girl you laughed at is long gone."  
  
Laughed at her? He didn't remember laughing. Loving her, lusting for her - and after she left, brooding a great deal when he was alone, but laughing? At what? She had been young, but that hadn't made her laughable. He had loved the dreams he'd seen in her eyes. He had loved her potential as his queen.  
  
"I see you won't allow this to happen the easy way. Sarah, Sarah, always so stubborn. What a pity." He purred, advancing slowly toward her like a cat waiting to spring.  
  
A wind had started in the corners of her room. The hairs on the back of Sarah's neck prickled straight up. Even though she knew Sir Didymus would be no match for Jareth, she kicked herself for not having taken him up on his offer of protection. Staring up at the Goblin King, she suddenly felt very vulnerable and frightened. She started to back away from him and grunted when she came into contact with a wall.  
  
"I'll ask you one more time. Come with me, Sarah. Please." Jareth kept inching closer, hemming her in against the wall bit by bit.  
  
"You know I can't."  
  
The momentary flash of pain and regret in Jareth's eyes startled Sarah. Then he smiled at her - a cold, feral smile.  
  
"All right, Sarah. If you say so."  
  
A snake appeared in his hand, writhing over his arms toward Sarah. He tossed it at her. She smirked and reached out her hands to catch it in midair. She'd seen this trick before. But this time instead of turning into a harmless silk scarf, the snake wound its way around her wrists, becoming a leather cord that bound them tightly together.  
  
Before she could cry out, Jareth's gloved hand clapped over her mouth as his other arm closed around her like a vise. She squirmed against him, struggling in earnest, but to no avail. His strength was inhuman and he easily held her helpless, his hand silencing her screams as the wind rose higher and higher around them. It grew so dark and frightening that Sarah became more afraid of being swept away than she was of the Goblin King who was kidnapping her. He tightened his arms around her protectively as she trembled against him. The powerful winds seemed to numb the corners of her mind until slowly the blackness closed in and she sagged against her captor, unconscious. 


	4. Settling In

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the "Labyrinth". I borrow their clothes from time to time though.  
  
Chapter 4  
  
She was aware of being warm and feeling safe. Through the fog that clouded her mind, this struck her as odd because she hadn't felt this safe and protected for a long, long time. She was lying on something deliciously soft, much nicer than the lumpy sofa bed she'd grown accustomed to. Someone was holding her hand.  
  
Sarah sighed in pleasure and tried to stretch. To her dismay, she couldn't. All her feelings of peacefulness fled. Reality registered in the form of a small, sick pit of fear in her stomach as she realized her wrists were still tightly bound with a leather cord and secured to something above her head. She was lying on what seemed to be an enormous bed. When she moved, she found that her ankles had also been roped together. The cords weren't so tight that they hurt, but tugging at them confirmed her fears. There was no way she could release herself.  
  
Jareth lifted his fingers from hers. She gasped and tried to writhe away when she saw that he was sitting on the bed next to her. She was uncomfortably aware that he must have been with her the whole time she was unconscious. Dear god, he'd been holding her hand. What in the world would he do that for?! Especially after kidnapping her and leaving her tied up! The gall! Then it occurred to her that she was completely helpless and tied to a bed with the Goblin King leaning over her. What was he planning to do to her? As her eyes blazed up at him, she almost trembled with her rage. Gloved fingers slid under her chin and cupped her face.  
  
"Release me this instant," she spat.  
  
Jareth held her still as he moved his face closer to hers. His voice cracked through the room like a whip.  
  
"Not until we have an understanding in place. There is nowhere for you to run, Sarah. You asked me to come to you and I did. You are here because you wished it and no, you cannot leave. There is no contest for you to win and no champion to seek you out. When you called to me, your forfeited your life Aboveground. Those are the laws of the Fae. I tried to bring you here nicely and you left me no choice but to bring you here by force. I've left you bound for the moment because I have no desire to waste my energy chasing you all over the castle until you fully understand that leading me on such a chase would indeed be pointless. Are we clear?"  
  
After a brief pause, she nodded. She would NOT cry. Dammit.  
  
With a graceful wave of his hand, the straps that held her seemed to grow softer and lighter until they melted away into thin air. Sarah sat up and took in her surroundings. She was sitting on a massive four-poster bed with a curtained canopy. The room itself was surprisingly cozy for its size. A crackling fire in the fireplace across from the bed kept the space comfortably toasty. Bookcases lined several of the walls and the rest were covered in beautiful paintings. While the drapes on the windows were drawn for the evening, Sarah could spy some plants in the shadows as well as a writing desk and several overstuffed chairs. A golden clock that registered thirteen hours chimed softly over the fireplace. The vision didn't line up with the chaos and disarray that she remembered as the Goblin King's throne room. Was this his bedroom? Against her will, she liked it.  
  
Jareth caught the small measure of approval in her expression and his heart gave a jump. "Do you like the room then? Yes, this is my bedroom. Would you like me to show you yours?"  
  
What Sarah wanted him to do was return her to her own world and then go directly to hell without passing "Go" or collecting two hundred dollars. Her better judgment won out.  
  
"Yes, please," she murmured, trying to show him a small smile. Hopefully he hadn't stuck her in some dank cell. She really didn't know what to expect or even how he felt about keeping her there. He had seemed to want her when he was trying to convince her to come along peaceably, but now he'd told her he had taken her because it was the laws of his kind. For all she knew, he didn't want her in his castle any more than she wanted to be there. Heck, maybe he'd throw her out of the castle and give her a room in a shed next to the Bog. Either way, there was no point in being rude. Although she wanted to claw him and spit in his face, she didn't think she could escape by fighting with Jareth. She would have to bide her time and learn a little more about her situation before she would be able to lay any plans.  
  
Jareth was surprised at how quickly she'd quieted down - surprised and suspicious. What did that little minx have going on behind those emerald eyes? He had hated to tie her up. Well.maybe not if the situation had been a bit different, he smiled to himself. But she'd been so frightened and he had to keep her still for the transportation spell. He also knew that after she woke up, the last thing he needed would be a wild chase all over the castle until he had managed to wrestle her down. Wrestle her down? Damn. That would have been lovely. He kicked himself again for being an idiot.  
  
Seeing Sarah shiver, Jareth picked up a fur-lined robe from a chair and draped it gently over her shoulders. It was definitely too large for her, but he loved the sight of her delicate beauty engulfed in his clothing. It made her seem even more his. He sighed at the thought. She had called on him and technically she did belong to him to handle as he saw fit, but he wanted more. He hated admitting it, but he wanted her heart and soul. She already had his. It was only fair.  
  
Sarah was touched by the gesture of the robe and then mentally slapped herself. You don't know what he wants or where he'll keep you. The possessiveness of the gesture made her shudder softly. She wasn't sure whether she was secretly pleased or infuriated.  
  
Jareth took Sarah's hand and guided her to a small door. When he opened it, her mouth fell open in surprise. The room was exquisite, every bit as comfortable and cozy as his own, but much more feminine in tone. This room was also lined with books and warmed by a roaring fire, but it included an enormous vanity with a scrolled, round mirror, and stocked with every perfume, powder and cosmetic she could think of. The room also boasted a cushioned window seat and a lovely skylight where she could gaze up at stars or sunshine. Sarah eyed a set of French doors leading off to a small balcony with sharp interest. She could knot those sheets together and be over that rail like a shot.  
  
Then she realized that she and the Goblin King had adjoining rooms.  
  
Oh my. That might make the balcony escape plan a little harder to pull off. Then there was also the matter of Jareth himself. Did that door have a lock on it? Would it really stop him if it did? She shook herself. The king had been more of a gentleman than she had expected him to be - so far.  
  
Jareth saw the worry on her features and wasn't certain of the source. "Do you like it? I do hope you'll be comfortable. The wardrobe is stocked with anything you might need and the bathroom is right over there. If you want anything at all, just knock." Then he realized what she might be worried about. "I assure you that these rooms are your private chambers. I will knock before entering - provided you don't try to escape."  
  
Her eyes were mutinous, but she nodded again. To her embarrassment, her stomach let out a loud growl.  
  
For heavens sake! Jareth had been so caught up with his excitement that Sarah was actually in his home that he hadn't given food a thought. He imagined that being suddenly spirited to the Underground had given her quite a shock and that she could probably use a little sustenance before she retired for the night.  
  
Jareth smiled mockingly at her. "A midnight snack perhaps?" he chuckled. He produced a crystal which he let fall from his hand. It rolled to the center of Sarah's room and as it rolled the crystal seemed to grow larger and more fragile, like a bubble. With a shower of light, the bubble popped and in its place stood a table set for two. "You won't mind if I join you? I'm feeling a bit peck-ish myself. Lot of work you know, bringing you here."  
  
Sarah's temper finally got the better of her self-control.  
  
"Oh excuse me!" she hissed sarcastically. " I'm so dreadfully sorry to have been such a terrible strain on you." She certainly hadn't asked to be terrorized and then abducted. If he found himself 'taxed' by the effort of keeping her, then it served him right.  
  
Jareth's cool glance skimmed over her flushed cheeks. "No strain at all, I assure you," he murmured as he pulled out her chair.  
  
Sarah eyed the delicious-looking dinner spread suspiciously. After her last experience with food in the Underground, she thought it best to proceed with caution. As if sensing her thoughts, Jareth smiled ruefully and said, "No peaches. I thought this dish was one of your favorites?"  
  
When he lifted one of the platter covers to reveal its contents, Sarah wasn't sure if she should be humiliated or pleased. Cheese-stuffed hotdogs were one of her most disgusting habits and she was shocked that Jareth knew about it! Had he been spying on her?! Then again.cheese dogs really were her one of her favorite "forbidden" midnight snacks. She looked at the platter with naked hunger.  
  
When she still hesitated, Jareth reached over and cut a piece off of one of the cheese dogs and ate it.  
  
"See? Perfectly safe."  
  
Sarah flushed twenty shades of red and then took a small bite for herself. Jareth was completely charmed. He was also pleased to see that she hadn't lost her appetite.  
  
"Thank you," Sarah whispered, eyes downcast. She was taken aback by the kindness Jareth had shown her so far, and was still so shaken up from being kidnapped that her thoughts were a jumble. She had to admit that she was terrified of the man across from her. If he had failed to control her before, he certainly had power over her now. She gave herself big points for holding herself together so well and tried to keep the meal down. She would need her strength if she planned to make good on an escape.  
  
Jareth gazed longingly at Sarah as they ate in silence. He decided not to press her for conversation. He could sense the exhaustion and fear underneath her steely self-control and felt compassion for her. Soon she would come to accept her fate, but he doubted it would be easy for her. He also suspected that she would disregard his warning and try to escape anyway. Ah well. The spell he'd woven was one of the most powerful he knew. It would keep her captive easily enough, but he disliked having to use it. She would probably find her first attempt to leave very frustrating indeed. However, he figured confinement by magic would be much more comfortable for her than keeping her chained to a wall somewhere. She would only hate him even more if he locked her in a dungeon.  
  
After they finished eating, Jareth bid her goodnight. "And remember, should you need anything at all, just knock. I want you to be comfortable here."  
  
"Thank you," Sarah replied. She'd have to be really quiet knotting those sheets.  
  
Jareth's gaze lingered over Sarah as he bid her goodnight. Gods but she was beautiful! As he closed the door, he had a feeling that their evening was only beginning. He smiled ruefully and listened for her escape. 


	5. Escape

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from "Labyrinth". But they get so cantankerous at times that they think they own me.  
  
Chapter 5  
  
Sarah hadn't had any sleep in nearly twenty hours, but her nerves staved off her exhaustion. She sat on the bed, wide-awake and waiting until she thought the chances were good that the Goblin King was fast asleep. She slipped off Jareth's robe so the rustling folds wouldn't give her away and padded over to the French doors leading out to the balcony. To her joy, the doors opened quietly and easily when she pressed the handle. She looked down.well, she was up several stories, but her worst fears were thankfully unfounded. He hadn't locked her into some tower a mile above the ground. The sheets might reach just far enough to prevent her from breaking her neck.  
  
She slipped back to the bed and set to work. Toby had joined the Boy Scouts when he was old enough and Sarah had picked his young brain for the best knots to use when she was working with some of the riggings at the theater. She thanked the heavens for small blessings. Within fifteen minutes, Sarah had a sturdy rope. She slipped outside and tied one end to the rungs of the balcony and then slipped the rope over the edge. The drop looked somewhat steep at the end, but no more than about eight feet. She could do this.  
  
Sarah climbed over the balcony railing and quickly shinnied her way down the rope. Even as she crowed at her success she felt nervous. This had been too easy.  
  
She reached the end of the sheets and prepared for what she hoped would be a graceful drop to the ground below. She let go and gracefully dropped into a pair of waiting arms - arms that locked around her tightly. Sarah squeaked in alarm and found herself looking straight into a pair of familiar, mis-matched eyes that glinted with humor.  
  
"Going somewhere?" he purred into her ear. Sarah struggled in his grip and then became uncomfortably aware that the more she resisted, the more intimately he pressed her against him.  
  
Jareth smiled down at her. He was enjoying this. He had figured his little bird would try to fly at the first opportunity and had changed the parameters of his spell just enough so that he could have the pleasure of catching her. He'd planned to transport her straight back to her room, but then thought that carrying her back himself might be even more pleasant. Without ceremony, he threw her over his shoulder like a sack of meal and walked back inside the castle.  
  
Sarah had no idea what he would do to her now that she had tried to escape and her terror made her desperate. She fought against his strength like a madwoman. Jareth was forced to put her down for fear of dropping her, but he easily caught her when she tried to run. His hands clamped around her wrists and he whirled her to face him, twisting her arms behind her back. After a brief tussle, he managed to wrestle her over to a corner, where he could pin her in place against the wall with the rest of his body.  
  
Sarah strained against Jareth's grip, kicking and twisting, but she was no match for his strength. The hopelessness of her situation finally came crashing in on her and she collapsed against him, the tears she'd been holding back streaking down her face. Jareth kept her arms pinned behind her, but his grip gentled. After a few minutes of just holding her as she cried, he released her hands and pulled her to him in a tender embrace, stroking her hair and murmuring any words of comfort he could think of. He lifted her delicate form, still shaking with sobs, into his arms and carried her gently to her room where he deposited her on the bed and continued to hold her close.  
  
Sarah was so overcome with exhaustion that she couldn't fight him anymore. His fingers softly ran through her hair and over her cheek as he pulled her closer. She let him. Even if the Goblin King was her only company, she didn't want to be alone in that moment. Sleep blessedly stole over her as her cries quieted to the occasional sniffle or hiccough.  
  
Jareth gazed down at her now peaceful features and dried the last tears from her face with this cloak. He lifted the covers and tucked Sarah warmly into the bed and then stretched out next to her on top of the blankets. He wanted nothing more than to kiss away the tears that clung to her long lashes and then move on to her full, pouting lips. They almost seemed to beckon to him, but he felt that giving into his considerable temptations right now would be wrong. He settled instead for fitting one arm around her waist protectively and curving his own body around hers. He had told her to fear him once and it seemed as though his wish had definitely been granted in full. He didn't know if she would ever grow to love him, but he was already her slave.  
  
If nothing else, he knew his presence would prevent any further attempts at escape - at least for tonight. Breathing in the scent of her hair, he allowed sleep to claim him. 


	6. This Is How It's Gonna Be

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the "Labyrinth". When I am rich, I might buy up some real estate there though.  
  
Chapter 6  
  
Morning stole over the sleeping couple and Jareth awoke with a start as Sarah stirred. He froze instantly, not wanting to wake her. Every moment he had her in his arms was a miracle as far as he was concerned.  
  
Sarah rolled over and came into contact with something supple and warm.like leather. A memory stirred in the back of her sleep-drugged mind and her eyes flew open. Dear god, she was lying in the arms of the Goblin King.  
  
Who was looking at her with a rather amused expression.  
  
Clothes!! Where were her clothes? Oh! On her body! That was a good thing, right?  
  
Sarah noticed that the king was lying on top of the covers instead of underneath the blankets next to her. So maybe he hadn't been planning to rape her after all. That made the powerful arm locked around her waist maybe not so bad.  
  
"Good morning, love," he murmured intimately.  
  
Suddenly Sarah felt like a fool. She'd tried to run last night. Of course he would watch her as closely as he felt he had to in order to prevent her escape. She tried to tug herself free of his arm and to her astonishment; he released her easily, still looking at her with that infuriatingly mocking smile.  
  
"I'll give you some time to refresh yourself and then you'll join me for breakfast. I think we have a number of things to discuss - including the limits of my patience."  
  
With that, he swept himself off the bed and into his own room, leaving Sarah staring after him, open-mouthed. Of all the.ooooooarrrgh! She wanted to smash something delicate and breakable, but decided that a cool head might go a little further in getting her out of this mess.  
  
For Sarah, a cool head meant starting with a hot shower. Not that she expected any plumbing, but she hoped she could find at least a washbasin around and a well pump. To her delight, she found the bathroom connected to her room was fully modern - and enormous. The Jacuzzi tub looked positively decadent, but she opted for a shower since she was hungry and it would be a little quicker. The bathroom was filled with all sorts of scented soaps and lotions and Sarah forgot her fear for a little while as she luxuriated under a stream of steaming water.  
  
After she finished toweling herself off, it occurred to Sarah that there had to be something else to wear besides her pajamas. If she was going to face down a Goblin King, she wasn't going to do it in some baggy flannel shirt and bottoms. She opened the doors to the wardrobe, hoping for something sensible and warm. The seasons of the Aboveground and Underground didn't seem to run on quite the same clock. At home it was already winter, but here it seemed to be closer to mid-autumn. From her window, Sarah could make out the brilliant colors of the different trees. The last time she had been here was midsummer and everything had still been green.  
  
Sarah didn't know what she had been expecting to find inside the wardrobe, but certainly not this: gowns in every color sewn from the finest silks and velvets, jeweled, tasseled, and embroidered. She sucked in her breath admiringly as she fingered an impossibly sheer, silk overdress embroidered with butterflies.  
  
Practicality got the better of her and she started searching for something warm - maybe one of the velvets? She found what she was looking for in a simple, silver-grey gown. The velvet material felt thick enough to keep away the chill and the skirt looked like it would be easier to manage if she had to run than any of the fuller ones. If she had to hide, the color would stand out less than any of the brilliant reds or sky blues in the available selection. She found a light cotton underdress to slip under the gown, laced up the front and then set about untangling her hair. On the vanity, she found some pins and a simple snood ornamented with moonstones to catch her hair up and away from her face. If she had the opportunity to escape, she had done the best she could with the clothes Jareth had provided for her to stay warm and move quickly.  
  
If she'd had any idea of the effect the gown would have on Jareth when he saw her, she would have searched frantically for a sackcloth.  
  
Sarah heard a knock on her door and opened it to see the Goblin King standing right in front of her. His mouth fell open when he saw her and he didn't seem to be able to speak for a minute. Did I put this on wrong? she thought, self-consciously smoothing her skirts.  
  
Jareth couldn't believe his eyes. Well, maybe he could believe them but he certainly couldn't rip them away. The silvery velvet clung to the curves of the woman standing before him. Sarah's white cotton underdress modestly covered her breasts where the laced-up neckline of the gown would have been daringly low, but the thin cotton was still somewhat sheer. Her green eyes seemed all the more like emeralds for the neutral silver of the gown. The flashing moonstones in her hair shone softly, their contrast to her sable locks bringing out her pale, rose petal skin. As she stepped back from him, her skirts swirled gracefully with her movements.  
  
She felt impossibly stupid.  
  
Jareth stood before her, tall and imposing in a black shirt, black leather vest, and form-fitting black pants. His silver-blond hair was caught in a band at the base of his neck, the rest falling in wisps about his aristocratic features. Even simply dressed, he was every inch the imposing king and for a moment Sarah felt like she was fifteen again - unsure and staring at a man who frightened and intrigued her in the most confusing of ways!  
  
His lips twisted mockingly. "I trust you slept well."  
  
Sarah didn't think she'd blushed this much in her life before she came to the Underground.  
  
"Well enough," she muttered, grudgingly taking his arm as he offered it to her. He led her down several short hallways to a room that appeared to be some sort of solarium. Glass walls revealed a lovely view of the autumn scene outside. A small table had been set for two and was covered with a delicious breakfast.  
  
Jareth seated Sarah and when he saw that the food seemed to be to her liking, cut to the chase.  
  
"Sarah, I realize that this is all very sudden for you, but there are some things you need to understand."  
  
"Really?" she couldn't keep the sarcasm from dripping off her tone.  
  
"You called me - "  
  
"I didn't mean to!"  
  
"Whether you meant to or not is not the point. You did. When I am called to take someone, the mortal I take is mine to keep. That is the law of the fae. You are bound to me and I have no intention of releasing you. In your brother's case, since he did not call me to take him and I came instead at your request, you were given the option of completing my labyrinth to win back your brother. Since you called me to take you on your own, there is no one who can champion you - not even the friends you have who are part of the Underground. Sarah, this is your home now. I suggest you accept it."  
  
Sarah trembled with her rage. "If you honestly think you can keep me here like some kind of stupid pet-"  
  
"I CAN keep you here, I DON'T think you're stupid and you're NOT my pet. You ARE my captive for as long as you remain here unwillingly. If over the years, you should change your mind and choose to stay here of your own accord, then you are no longer my captive, but rather my companion. You will live in the castle under my protection and be treated as royalty. Either way Sarah, you belong to me because you called me. That's simply the way it is."  
  
Sarah wanted to scream that it wasn't fair, but she hadn't lived on her own in New York City since she was nineteen for nothing. She felt tears swimming in her eyes and gave herself a good mental slap. She had to try to reason with him. She decided to be blunt.  
  
"Why in the world would you want to keep ME? You seemed eager enough to kill me off the first time we met and since I've been here, I think I've already proven myself to be far too much trouble! Plus," inspiration struck, "I AM mortal and that means I'll grow old and die before your very eyes. There's hardly any point in keeping me if I'll only be a bother to you and then up and die. We humans get terribly fragile and crotchety as we age. It seems so pointless, really. Best to send me on about my life Aboveground than to keep me to rot here in your castle. You'll only be bored to tears with me!"  
  
"I certainly didn't find last evening with you to be dull." Jareth rejoined mildly. He wasn't worried at all about watching her age and die. The Underground had a way of rubbing off on people. Any mortals claimed by fae gradually became one of them. But he didn't think Sarah was quite ready for that piece of news yet.  
  
Sarah bit her lip, racking her brains for any reason she could think of to convince Jareth that keeping her was a bad idea. His mention of Toby had brought her family to mind. People would know something was wrong when she didn't show up to run the next performance. If her family were notified, they would be frantic. She had to get home. Giving up was not an option.  
  
As if reading her thoughts, Jareth said, "Sarah, I only caught you myself last night to make a point. Even if I'd slept straight through your attempt to escape, you would still have failed. The spell around you is born of the laws of the Fae - even I could not place so powerful a spell around you all on my own. You'd have found that every path you tried to take would lead you straight back to my castle. Every door you would have opened would have opened into your room. By all means, do try running away again today. You'll soon learn not to doubt my word."  
  
Sarah had every intention of taking him up on the challenge, but since she was going to be trapped at least through breakfast, she decided to give rein to her curiosity. They ate in silence for a few moments as she gathered her thoughts.  
  
"Jareth, since I am to stay here," she ventured, thinking she might as well humor him, "may I ask you a few questions?"  
  
"I imagine you have a lot you'd like to know. Ask away," he said genially.  
  
"Am I.the first adult mortal you've ever taken?"  
  
"Mmmm.yes and no. You are the first adult mortal to have called on me by name and the first that I've specifically transported to the Underground to keep as my own. There have been others set to solve my labyrinth who failed and when I offered to send them back to their home world, they opted instead to stay here. The Underground really is a lovely spot."  
  
"Are any of them.still living?" she asked hopefully. Even if the mortals who were here had chosen to remain on their own, she thought someone might take pity on an Aboveground woman trying to escape back to her family and offer her some help.  
  
"Actually," Jareth laughed, "all of them!"  
  
Sarah was confused. Surely mortals had been wishing themselves into the labyrinth for longer than only the past ninety years or so. "I don't understand."  
  
"Sarah, all the mortals who have chosen to stay here are alive and well and under my protection as my minions. I guess I should tell you, but I thought it might be a bit much after last night."  
  
She tingled inside to think of the events of the evening before. Sarah had been hysterical, but not so much that she didn't clearly remember the Goblin King soothing her and tenderly carrying her to her room. He'd kept murmuring over and over that she was all right, that he would never harm her, and that he would take care of her.wait a minute! Tell her WHAT?  
  
"Just tell me, Jareth. Please. If I need to know.I'd like to hear it from you." She might as well. What choice did she have? If she was going to get out of here, she needed all the information she could get.  
  
"No one from the Aboveworld can live here without absorbing some of the Underground. Anyone from your world who remains here eventually becomes one of us. One of the Fae traits you mortals seem to absorb most quickly is our longer life span."  
  
"You mean, I'm going to become FAE!?" Sarah practically shouted.  
  
"Is it so awful?"  
  
Sarah had started shaking. Her pride went down the toilet as she felt a tear roll down her cheek. For pity's sake! How many times would she have to blush and cry in front of him?  
  
Jareth had known this would be very hard for her, but he felt his chest contract painfully when he saw her tears. He wouldn't give her up, but he would do anything else to secure her happiness.  
  
Sarah fought for her composure and raised pleading eyes to her captor. He would probably only laugh at what she had to say, but if her pride was already suffering she might as well throw it away completely. A chance to see her family, and if nothing else, let them know she was alive and well, was worth it.  
  
"Jareth." her voice trembled. She tried again. "Jareth, I love my family. We're very close. They must be so worried." She drew a deep breath as another tear fell. Damn. Why did she have to keep crying like an idiot? "You've certainly given me everything I need to be comfortable here. It's not that I don't appreciate everything you've done for me, I just.I need them, Jareth. I need my family as much as I've needed my friends here in the Underground. Is there any way at all that I can see them?"  
  
Jareth held his breath for a moment. There was a way. She wouldn't like it.  
  
"Sarah.if you want to see your family again, there is one way and one way only that I can allow that to happen without breaking the laws of the Fae."  
  
She looked up at him through her tears. Anything, she knew she'd do anything.  
  
"I cannot release you. However, I can grant you the gift of traveling between our worlds on one condition - you must bind yourself to me for eternity by becoming my wife."  
  
Sarah's fork clattered to the floor, but she was too shocked to retrieve it. "Your.wife?" she whispered.  
  
"Yes. If you will agree to marry me, rule my kingdom with me, and share my life and my bed as my wife, you will be free to travel to your own world to visit your family. You won't be able to stay there for more than a week or two at a time. You are already becoming Fae and will need the Underground to sustain your life as much as I do to sustain mine. But if you take the vows of sacred and eternal Fae marriage with me, you can see your family regularly."  
  
Sarah went completely still, her eyes distant, gazing unseeing at the breathtaking autumn view outside the glass walls. Jareth held his breath as he watched her. She hadn't run from the table screaming. Perhaps that was a point in his favor? He had expected an outright refusal, a livid shouting match at the very least. It was his turn to freeze in shock when Sarah finally flicked her eyes back to him and spoke.  
  
"I know what I am here, Jareth, - a human with no magic that you can keep as your prisoner whether we're married or not. Would you truly take me as your wife? If marrying you means that I can see my family again, I need to know if this is an option that you're really offering me or if you're just mocking me before I'll even be able to consider it." She spoke her words slowly, her gaze locked with his.  
  
Jareth was afraid he would shatter. In his wildest dreams, had had never thought that she might agree to marry him - hoped, prayed and cursed to that effect, daily - but after her resistance to coming to the Underground, he'd resigned himself to holding her as his captive for a good many years before he would even win her friendship. No one had ever offered him HIS dreams before. He felt like he had just been given a chance at the moon and had no idea what to do with it.  
  
"I am not mocking you, Sarah," he said softly. "If you agree to be my wife, you can visit your family as often as you like. Will you consider my offer?"  
  
Sarah was certain some crazy lady had taken over her body when she heard her voice say, "Yes. Yes I will consider it."  
  
Sarah watched as a very strange expression crossed Jareth's features. She could have sworn Jareth's glass had been holding orange juice. Now the contents looked suspiciously like wine. She watched him tilt the glass up and drain it. When he looked up, his eyes were so intense that she started to feel very warm indeed. Flustered, she looked down to regain her composure. If she was going to marry an evil Goblin King tyrant, she didn't want to walk into it blindly.  
  
"Jareth.there are some other things I need to know."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
There was something so eager and hopeful in his voice. Sarah was starting to get very confused indeed. Why would a king who had stolen her brother, mocked her dreams, and then abducted her treat her so nicely as his captive and then offer her marriage? There had to be a catch.  
  
"You mentioned that you would expect your wife to rule by your side. I imagine that there is a great deal that goes into ruling your kingdom. Umm.I want to ask you about the things you expect from a wife. What do I need to know? Are there any special duties that I'll be expected to perform? Basically, I want to know what is required of a queen.um.so that I can be prepared and.and. not force the kingdom to war or anything by accident. Is there training for this?" Great. Her phrasing could not have been more graceful, she thought with a snort. Why did she have to be such a goob? Sarah felt suddenly awkward and inexperienced as the enormity of accepting Jareth's offer started to sink in.  
  
At this he laughed, a genuine shaking belly laugh. She watched his face light up with humor and golden hair fall back. Her breath caught. He really was beautiful. For just one second, he even seemed likeable. He smiled warmly at her, eyes shining.  
  
"My dear, I promise you, should you decide to be my wife, we would cover all matters of state in detail together before you had to do anything in front of my minions or on your own. I am happy to answer any questions you might have about what might be expected of you - in fact, if you like, we can start today. I realize that the sooner you are able to allay your family's worries, the better."  
  
Jareth knew his last comment was a bit of a dig, reminding her of the pressure of her family's concern, but he forgave himself this once. The sooner she agreed to marry him, the sooner he could bind her to him for all eternity. He loved her completely, but was still the Goblin King.  
  
Marriage to Sarah would not only make him the happiest man alive, but would also solve several other problems of a more political nature. His defeat at Sarah's hands had caused the Fae to question his power. Of course he was love struck and would never have seriously harmed the girl. The things he'd thrown at her in his labyrinth were only to frighten her off and he would have rescued her before any of his spells or minions would have caused her serious harm. His defeat had still come as an unpleasant surprise. He had underestimated the strength of Sarah's will and also her love for her brother. Now that she was his captive, he could save some face with his own kind. Taking her as his wife would bind her to him in a way that merely holding her prisoner would not - an ultimate demonstration of his power.  
  
Marrying Sarah would also solve his concern about producing an heir. Once a notorious rake, Jareth had lost interest in chasing women ever since he'd fallen in love with Sarah. He had scarcely spared a glance for the string of lovely Fae princesses who had paraded themselves in front of him with an eye for becoming a queen. Now, he would have his queen, his heir, his power and the woman of his dreams.  
  
Sarah drew in a shaky breath. Okay. She could do this. Besides she hadn't committed to anything yet. She was just scoping out her options, right?  
  
"All right. Shall we start after breakfast then?"  
  
"Actually I have some matters regarding the kingdom I need to attend to first. I had thought you might wish to see one or two of your friends this morning and then we could begin this afternoon? Hogswart actually knows my palace rather well. I thought he might show you around a bit and then you and I can have lunch and begin covering the duties of a queen after."  
  
"Hoggle. Okay," Sarah nodded. She was only too happy to see one of her friends. Hoggle might not be able to rescue her, but if the Goblin King's spell preventing her escape worked as he said, maybe Hoggle would have information that would help her find a way to break it.  
  
Jareth was elated. The 'matters of state' he needed to attend to were all wedding preparations. He planned to marry her within.oh.three days should be enough. Maybe sooner. Sarah would be very concerned about her family by then. There was nothing for it. The wedding dress would have to be completed within the day. Jareth showed Sarah to her room, promising her that Hoggle would join her shortly.  
  
A completely mystified Sarah stared after Jareth as he walked away. Was he whistling? 


	7. A Confession

Disclaimer: I own nothing from the "Labyrinth". Actually, about all I have is $4.56, a button and some lint.  
  
Chapter 7  
  
Soon after Jareth left her, Sarah heard a knock on her door. She put down the book of Elvin poetry she'd been reading (thoughtfully translated into English by Jareth) and opened the door to see her dear friend Hoggle standing before her, arms outstretched. Their reunion was warm and tearful. After Sarah related the events of her return to the Underground, Hoggle sat silent for a long moment.  
  
"Will you marry him?" he asked.  
  
"Not if you can help me find a way out of it."  
  
"Do you really think marriage to Jareth would be that bad?"  
  
"Hoggle!" Sarah was shocked. "He kidnapped my brother, nearly killed you and me both any number of times, threatened to drop you into the Bog of Eternal Stench when you tried to help me, and then years after I defeat him, has the gall to kidnap me again - who knows why - and you can even ASK me that?"  
  
"Sarah," Hoggle started tentatively, "he may not be the nicest of rulers all the time, but maybe Jareth has his side too. You must have asked him to come get you. How else could he have brought you here?"  
  
"I can't believe I'm hearing this. Of course I didn't ask him to rip me away from my life and my family! Why would I do that? Oh, Hoggle." Sarah started to sob as Hoggle held her. "I have to get out of this somehow. My family must be so worried by now!"  
  
"There, there. It's not so bad. You'll always have us - and once you marry Jareth you can see your family as well."  
  
"I am not going to marry Jareth," Sarah ground out. "He told me he has some kind of spell up to keep me from escaping. Hoggle, if it's true there must be some way to break it. I was hoping you could help me."  
  
"Oh Sarah, I would do anything for you if I could. Jareth is far too powerful. If you called him and he's decided to keep you, can't nobody help you. I'm sorry, Sarah."  
  
Sarah was crestfallen, but she put on a brave face for her friend. She knew that he would be miserable if he saw how sad and frightened she really was. There had to be a way out of Jareth's power and if she was left all on her own to find it, she would do it.  
  
Hoggle spent the rest of the morning showing Sarah around the castle. Sarah was forced to admit that the palace was exceedingly beautiful. The gardens were a breathtaking sight, the hedges arranged in their own miniature labyrinth, the paths filled with flowers and fountains and statues. After seeing Jareth's extensive library, any worries Sarah may have had about being bored evaporated entirely. She loved to read and could hardly wait to lose herself in a stack of books.  
  
Sarah sucked in her breath when Hoggle opened the doors to Jareth's ballroom. The gorgeous room was just as she remembered it - huge candelabras, gold working and crystalline mirrors covering every wall, and then there was that deliciously decadent pillow pit in the center of the room. Remembering the moments she spent whirling around the dance floor in Jareth's arms made her want to beat a hasty retreat. She felt so ashamed knowing that she had almost given in to his charm. She remembered him singing something about painting her "mornings of gold" and spinning her "valentine evenings". To think that she'd ever believed such a thing made her feel like a complete dupe.  
  
"Sarah?" Hoggle looked over at her with concern. "Is everything all right?"  
  
She hadn't realized she had been wearing her emotions on her sleeve. "Oh.yes, Hoggle. I guess this room just holds some unpleasant memories for me, that's all."  
  
"You've been here before?"  
  
"Why, yes. I thought maybe you knew? After Jareth forced you to give me that peach, I took a bite and found myself here, dancing around Jareth's ballroom."  
  
"He.he didn't hurt you or nothin'?" Hoggle looked very worried indeed.  
  
"No, no. I shattered one of his mirrors and escaped. I just feel like such a fool knowing that I even thought of giving in to him."  
  
"What do you mean, Sarah? You can tell your friend Hoggle."  
  
Sarah knew she could and she finally did. None of her Underground friends had known exactly what happened after she'd bitten Jareth's peach. Sara had been too ashamed to tell them.  
  
Sarah and Hoggle sat down in the pillow pit and her story tumbled out. She confessed everything to Hoggle about her temptation in the arms of the Goblin King and how horrible she felt when she realized that she'd nearly sacrificed her own brother for her dreams - especially when Jareth had only been mocking her the whole time.  
  
"It's the silliest, most asinine thing, Hoggle, but in a way, I guess I'd have to say that Jareth broke my heart. For a moment, I actually believed that he did love me and I thought then that I could love him in return. How I ever could have been so stupid is beyond me. Jareth doesn't love anyone. Jareth sees something he wants and does whatever he has to do to take it. He wanted Toby and did everything in his power to keep me out of the way. The only reason I can think of for him to kidnap me and keep me here is revenge. I did defeat him and now, since he's taken me as his prisoner, he has, in a way, defeated me."  
  
"Oh, Sarah, I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I would have let Jareth dunk me in the Bog if I truly thought he'd hurt you. It's just that.he seemed like.well, for him, mind you, which isn't sayin' much.but.he seemed to really like you. I mean, he could have killed you lots of times but instead of leaving you in the oubliette, he sends me to take you back to the beginning. Instead of letting the cleaners chop us to pieces, he let the wall give out. Instead of letting the fireys tear your head off, he helps me find you so that I can pull you out. It seemed like he was goin' to a lot of trouble to keep you alive."  
  
"He did all that? He LET the wall give? He HELPED you rescue me from the fireys? Why? I don't get it - especially since he only wanted to keep Toby all along. Why risk Toby's rescue at all?"  
  
"Why come get Toby at all? Jareth doesn't usually answer to wishes unless people call him by name. It sounds to me like he had his eye on you for awhile." Hoggle said, looking at Sarah sideways. "Whatever his reasons, you sure do know how to get his attention."  
  
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of footsteps outside the door.  
  
"Ah - Sarah, Hogshead, how are you enjoying my palace?" Jareth stood imposingly in the door. "This room in particular holds many lovely memories for me," he continued, staring directly at Sarah.  
  
Sarah felt her temper rising and struggled to check it. She had the insane urge to tell the king that his palace was a 'piece of cake'. Instead she settled for saying, "It's peachy."  
  
Jareth smiled. In an instant he'd whipped out a crystal that gracefully spun itself into a peach in his hand. He held the peach out to Sarah. "Hungry?"  
  
"No thank you. The last peach I tried here was rotten."  
  
Jareth raised an eyebrow but didn't miss a beat. "Very well," he said and with a graceful flick of his fingers, the peach turned into a deliciously ripe-looking, golden pear.  
  
Sarah's green eyes locked with his gaze. She was sick of being afraid. Without giving herself time to think about it, she reached out, plucked the pear from his grasp and took a bite. The juices of the pear filled her mouth with cool, sweet nectar. She started to feel a warm, languid sensation in the pit of her stomach as she slowly took another bite. Relaxation stole through her body and for a moment she forgot her anger. On instinct, she held out the pear to Jareth, offering it to him. Eyes still locked with hers, he took the pear and bit into it himself.  
  
Although Sarah's anger had left her, she was still very much aware that the pear had been enchanted.  
  
"What did you do to it?" she asked, oddly at ease and yet expecting an answer.  
  
"A little magic to increase your sense of well-being. We have a lot of work to do this afternoon and I want you to feel comfortable so that you won't be distracted. See? It's harmless," the king assured her, taking another bite himself to emphasize his point.  
  
Hoggle's worry had returned. "It won't hurt the missy or nothin'?" he asked suspiciously.  
  
"Hogsbrain, you of all people should know that I would never cause Sarah any harm. Now if you'll excuse us, Sarah has a great deal to learn about running a kingdom." Jareth grasped Sarah's hand and led her from the room.  
  
Hoggle stared after them, concerned and confused. He'd long suspected that the king truly loved Sarah, but questioned his methods in seducing her. He secretly thought that Sarah might be just what the Underground needed to bring a little balance to the government, but he was also worried for his friend. He loved Sarah and would personally gather all of Sarah's Underground friends and revolt against Jareth if he so much as harmed a hair on that girl's head - Bog or no Bog.  
  
Now that he knew the whole story behind the peach Jareth had forced him to give to her, Hoggle could see why Sarah might despise the Goblin King for playing with her heart. He just hoped Jareth wouldn't screw it up again this time. Having Sarah as a Goblin Queen would actually be quite wonderful, if Jareth could pull it off and actually win her love. Hoggle sighed, and let himself out of the ballroom. Maybe she would be more effective than His-Royal-Peachiness at doing something about those damn fairies. 


	8. Contract

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the 'Labyrinth". In fact, I'd probably get killed off trying to run the dang thing.  
  
Chapter 8  
  
Sarah found her afternoon with Jareth to be surprisingly pleasant. Thanks to his magic snack, she felt completely comfortable with him as he tutored her on the history of his kingdom, the other royal houses and types of Fae. Jareth was impressed with how quickly she grasped the big picture of the politics that surrounded his kingdom and also with her insightful questions. As he described the other noble houses to her, he also spoke of the particular royals she was likely to encounter. He had a gift for impressions and Sarah was soon rolling with laughter.  
  
Watching her face light up and her eyes shine with humor made Jareth want to gather the gorgeous woman across from him into his arms and kiss her senseless. As she slowly opened up to him and allowed him to see the parts of her personality that had nothing to do with combat or anger, his appreciation of her only increased. Not only had he fallen head over heels in love with a woman as intelligent and ruthless as himself, but she was also wise, determined and had a delightful sense of humor. Jareth knew this was a relationship he would richly enjoy both in and out of bed.  
  
What delighted him even more was that the magic of the pear had worn off hours ago.  
  
As their afternoon drew to a close, Jareth grew more serious. " I do think you will make an exceptional queen," he murmured, brushing his lips over her hand as he gallantly helped her rise from her chair.  
  
Sarah flushed with pleasure and then gave herself a good mental swat. What was she DOING? Jareth was the enemy for heavens sake and here she'd been staring into his eyes and giggling like some idiotic schoolgirl. She had to get home to her world Aboveground where she had a loving family and the directing career of her dreams. She couldn't really stay in Jareth's kingdom and be a Goblin Queen - could she?  
  
Jareth sensed the change in her mood. He was a Goblin King - not a saint - and settled for another dirty trick.  
  
"I thought perhaps you'd like to look in on your family a little - just to make certain they're all right," he said solicitously.  
  
"You'd let me visit?" Sarah asked in disbelief.  
  
"I'm afraid I can't do that, but I can at least offer you a glimpse of how they're doing." He produced a crystal that he flipped back and forth between his fingers and then handed to Sarah.  
  
What she saw inside was enough to stop her heart. Her father and stepmother were sitting in the living room, faces drawn and pale. Her father was generally a stoic man, but now his eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. Toby was sitting close to Karen on the couch, his face streaked with tears. She heard his young voice pinched with worry "Will they find her? Is she gonna be okay?" Sitting across from her family were several police officers.  
  
"When the NYPD broke down the door to her apartment, the place looked like some kind of struggle had occurred," one of the officers said. "But nothing seemed to be missing - except your daughter. We're sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Williams. We'll do everything we can to find her."  
  
"Oh god, my daughter, my daughter," her father said as tears finally did start to spill over his lashes. He put his face in his hands as Karen leaned in to comfort him.  
  
The image in the crystal abruptly went out. Sarah sat stock still, her face white as a sheet. A steely resolve shone in her eyes and Jareth saw her swallow. She flicked her gaze up to meet his.  
  
"How soon can we marry?" she asked.  
  
"Tomorrow if you like." he replied.  
  
"Tomorrow then." she stated.  
  
Jareth stared at her for a long moment, his eyes suddenly hungry in a way that made Sarah's skin prickle.  
  
"I'll send someone to help you dress in the morning."  
  
"Tomorrow." she said again. 


	9. You Will Be Mine

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from "Labyrinth". I am amassing a nifty little cache of collectibles though. (  
  
Chapter 9  
  
Jareth was disappointed when Sarah requested that her dinner be brought to her room. He was only too eager to spend every moment in the company of his fiancee, but Sarah, looking truly exhausted, had said that she just needed a little time alone if he didn't mind. Jareth did mind, but he felt sorry for her. He really had put her through quite a bit in order to win her hand in marriage. He knew that winning her heart would be another matter entirely, but once she was bound to him for all eternity, he would have the rest of their lives to prove what a loving husband he could be - if a little ruthless at times. Dirty tricks were simply the way of all Fae.  
  
Speaking of dirty tricks, he decided to keep an extra close watch on her quarters that evening. Not that he doubted the strength of the spell he had woven around her, but one couldn't be too careful. He called up one of his crystals and watched the beautiful woman pick at her dinner, force down a few bites and then leave it untouched. Not quite untouched - she did drain her glass of wine in two gulps.  
  
Jareth needn't have worried. Sarah had no intention of running away. If she really was going to be forced to live in the Underground forever no matter what she did, she thought she might as well do whatever it took to see her family again. She went over to her vanity to take down her hair for the night. She knew she should at least try to sleep since she imagined she would need her strength to get through her wedding the next day. How in the world had it all come to this? She had made a foolish wish when she was only fifteen and now here she was at twenty-eight, pledged in marriage to a royal, mystical Fae being - and the only person she might have cause to consider her enemy.  
  
As she brushed her lustrous black hair, she noticed something strange about her reflection in her vanity mirror. Although the room was lit by candlelight, her skin seemed to glow with an almost silvery sheen. She stopped untangling her hair and looked closer. Yes, the little laugh-lines that she had noticed starting around her eyes over the past two or three years were completely gone. She considered twenty-eight to be plenty young, but looking at herself carefully, she had to admit that she looked even younger than she had when she arrived in the Underground. If she saw the woman reflected in her mirror on the street, she would guess her to be.twenty-one, maybe only twenty?  
  
It's happening, she thought as she passed a hand over her silver pale skin. I wonder what it means. Jareth had told her that she would become Fae. From what he had said, she assumed the transformation would be somewhat rapid. She wondered how long - several weeks? a year? - before she would be truly Fae. Knowing that the time she would be able to spend with her family Aboveground was now limited by her very nature made her all the more determined to see them as soon and as often as she could. She would marry Jareth - whatever that would mean - and treasure the time she had left with her family. Sarah knew she would now outlive them.  
  
With a deep sigh, Sarah brought her thoughts back to Jareth. She would be lying to say that she didn't desire him. That particular aspect of their relationship had plagued her daily ever since she had first met him thirteen years ago. But what kind of man would he prove himself to be? She was completely confused by what she had seen of him so far. She recalled all of his tricks and manipulations the first time she had been in the labyrinth; but if what Hoggle had said was true, all of that was simply a tactic to delay her. Jareth would never have let her become injured or die. Sarah was also confused by his behavior since she had returned. He had forcibly abducted her from her home and yet once she was in his palace, he had actually been somewhat gentle with her - even.sweet, she thought, remembering the cheese dogs. What was he up to THIS time?  
  
By now, Sarah had changed into her nightgown - a scandalously sheer concoction that she figured had to be Jareth's handiwork. Oh well, it was better than nothing at all. Her own comfy flannel pajamas had mysteriously disappeared. At least he had left her his robe. She swathed herself in the oversize folds and went out on her balcony to look up at the stars. She wondered what would happen if she tried to run again. Somehow she knew that Jareth had been telling her the truth about the magic that trapped her there.  
  
She watched her breath float on the cool night air and then felt a pair of hands close over her shoulders. She would have whirled around, but Jareth's arms held her fast. Sarah didn't fight him, but just let him hold her quietly. After a moment, she relaxed against him a little. It was chilly outside and she appreciated the warmth of his body. She actually appreciated a number of other things about his body besides warmth, but would be damned if she'd admit it.  
  
"I wasn't going to run away again if that's what you were thinking," she said.  
  
"I know. I merely wanted to look at the stars with my bride."  
  
His bride. A wild image of herself as the Bride of Frankenstein flashed through her head and she couldn't help but giggle.  
  
"Is being married to me so humorous?"  
  
"Jareth, we're not married - yet - and.it's just so, so weird. Seeing as you kidnapped me yesterday, I think it's only natural that I'd be a little surprised to be engaged to you today."  
  
"Indeed," he murmured, taking a lock of Sarah's silken hair in his gloved hand and running it between his fingers.  
  
Suddenly his nearness was uncomfortable for Sarah and she moved away to stand over in the corner of the balcony railing.  
  
Jareth smiled. "And yet I have every confidence in you as my queen. You really did very well this afternoon."  
  
He stalked her with his eyes and sauntered to the center of the balcony, placing himself between Sarah and the door.  
  
"Thank you," Sarah said weakly. The fact that her easy exit had now been cut off did not escape her notice. She cursed herself for being an idiot.  
  
Jareth did not miss the hunted look in her eyes as he slowly drew nearer. Well, she would belong to him soon enough. She would have to get used to having him in very close proximity.  
  
"I think that in addition to learning to rule together, you and I have a lot to learn about each other," he said gently, trying not to startle her. She was beginning to look like she might bolt.  
  
Sarah was not certain at all that she liked where this was going. She had hoped for a reprieve from Jareth's attentions - at least for tonight. How she would handle him after they were married was a bridge she would jump from when she reached it. She pressed herself against the railing as he advanced upon her.  
  
"Of course. We should really get our rest," Sarah babbled, grasping at straws. "Tomorrow will be such a big day for both of us. I don't even know everything I'm supposed to do yet and.and.well, we'll have the rest of our lives to get better acquainted after the wedding." Her eyes darted from side to side, looking for an escape.  
  
Jareth crossed swiftly to Sarah and gripped the railing on either side of her, effectively caging her with his arms.  
  
"Are you afraid of me?"  
  
His mocking tone galled Sarah.  
  
"Of course not!"  
  
She wasn't afraid. She was desperately terrified.  
  
"Good," he smiled down at her with a devilish grin. He didn't touch her, but his lean, muscled body was so close to hers that Sarah could feel his body heat from under his clothes. Her heart thundered in her chest, but she raised her chin defiantly and met his gaze head on. Sarah had known Jareth expected her to share his bed like any man would expect of a wife, but she'd pushed that little detail to the back of her mind. She had no idea what kind of cruelties she would endure at the hands of her soon-to-be husband once he had bound her to him forever, but she'd be damned before she would let him know how much he really did frighten her.  
  
Jareth's lips hovered only a hair's breadth above her own. He said nothing, but Sarah knew his intent as soon as she saw his eyes closing. In a flash, he claimed her lips with his in a searing kiss, his fingers twining in her hair to hold her still. She brought her hands up to push him away, but he quickly swept her wrists to his chest and held them with one hand while his other arm circled around her to draw her intimately against him.  
  
Her eyes widened at the shock of feeling the full length of his arousal pressed against her. Sarah tried to resist, but instead found her traitorous body molding itself to Jareth in the most disturbing of ways. Against her will, she felt her own eyes closing and her mouth opening to his probing tongue. She knew she should fight him. Her pride demanded she fight. But for that one moment, Sarah didn't care. Never before had she known what it was to truly respond to a man with her own desire. Heat swept through her body and a helpless moan of surrender escaped her lips as she crushed her mouth against his.  
  
For a moment the world simply stopped.  
  
Jareth hadn't known what he was expecting, but certainly not this. His own reaction to Sarah's response took them both by surprise. With a growl, Jareth swept her up into his arms and carried her inside. He set her on her feet and with one deft motion, slipped the fur-lined robe from Sarah's shoulders. The nightgown underneath was impossibly sheer and clung to her every curve. It was everything Jareth could do not to rip the delicate material from her body as her thrusting breasts strained against the front of the gown. He didn't think he had ever seen anything more breathtaking than the woman who stood before him.  
  
Sarah's eyes grew huge at the look on Jareth's face. She sensed the iron self-control he was using to hold himself in check. In check from doing what? she wondered and backed away a step, suddenly very aware that she was standing practically naked in front of the Goblin King. She felt like her soul was a battleground, desire and mistrust raging in heated combat. Sarah knew she would have to submit to Jareth after they were married, but she didn't feel ready to face him tonight.  
  
Jareth advanced on Sarah and for a moment, she was frozen to the spot. In a flash she bolted toward the only exit - Jareth's bedroom. She almost made it. He dove toward her and caught her easily, one muscled arm looping around her waist and lifting her off her feet. Desperate, she squirmed against him, which only seemed to inflame his desire more as he carried her writhing body to the bed. He tossed her onto the covers in a tangle of sable hair and sheer silk. Not even knowing which way was up, Sarah lunged for the side of the bed only to feel rough arms close around her and yank her back. Jareth quickly pinned her down with his weight as his hands locked around her wrists, holding her helpless against the pillows.  
  
"Jareth, please! NO!" Her emerald eyes were swimming with unshed tears as she strained against him. God she wanted him, but not like this. She didn't want to be a possession that he could use and abuse at his will and she hated herself for desiring him all the same. Tomorrow she would say her vows and submit to him - tomorrow. But she needed this one night alone. Plus Jareth's sensual lips were hovering seductively over hers and she didn't think she could hold out for long.  
  
Jareth could barely restrain himself as he looked down at the beautiful woman struggling in his grasp, her luscious form pressed up tightly against him. Her flushed skin and eyes now bright with tears made her all the more desirable. He cursed himself under his breath as his mouth sought the delicate curve of her throat.  
  
"Please." Sarah breathed, still fighting as she felt her own need for him weaken her resolve. The sweet touch of his lips caressing her neck was almost more than she could bear. She arched against him, hanging on to her last thread of sanity. "No." her last protest was no more than a whisper.  
  
"Sarah," Jareth stopped, his breath ragged in her ear. "Oh god, Sarah," he groaned hoarsely, burying his face in her hair.  
  
After a moment, he released her hands. He slipped his arms around her waist and moved to the side so that she was no longer pinned beneath him. To his surprise, she didn't wrench herself away from him. Instead she lay very still in the circle of his arms.  
  
"Sarah! Are you all right? Did I hurt you?" Jareth asked, concern washing over his features.  
  
"No, no. I'm okay," Sarah replied softly.  
  
The two of them were silent for a long moment.  
  
"Sarah.I.I'm sorry I frightened you. I would never force you." Jareth couldn't remember the last time he had ever apologized to anyone. Sarah remained silent and after waiting to see if she would say something, he continued, "I know it is important to you to allay your family's worries as soon as possible. You should know that I will be unable to allow you to visit them until our marriage is complete - in every way." Jareth was unsure of what kind of ground he was standing on. He could tell that he'd frightened Sarah badly, but remembering her passionate response to his kiss, he suspected that she didn't find him entirely repulsive.  
  
"Jareth, one minute I'm standing in my apartment in New York, thinking over the next night of performances of the production I've put together; the next minute, you show up and kidnap me, I find out I'm going to have to stay in the Underground, I'm turning fae AND that I'm going to be a Goblin Queen and your WIFE into the bargain if I ever want to see a scrap of what I've always known as home again!!" Sarah's temper had crossed her threshold of control and her voice was rising. "After all of that, I don't think a night alone so I can rest is too damn much to ask. You're getting what you want - revenge and power over me. All I've asked from you is the favor of a few hours to myself so I don't go completely insane."  
  
By now she had flung herself from Jareth's embrace and started to pace. She saw the lust ignite in his eyes as she stood up in the sheer gown and angrily grabbed his robe from the floor where he had tossed it. "Yes, I will be your wife. Yes, we will consummate our marriage and you can do whatever you damn well please THEN. But tonight I am still very much my own woman and I am telling you to get the hell OUT!" With that she stomped over to Jareth's bedroom door and opened it in clear indication that she expected him to leave.  
  
Jareth's nostrils flared and his face went white. No one had ever spoken to him like that in his entire life. No one. He was king and expected obedience and respect from his subjects - even his queen. His tone was deadly quiet as he fixed Sarah with his gaze.  
  
"Very well," he said lightly. "If a few hours alone is what you would like, I'm only too happy to grant your wish."  
  
With a flick of his fingers, Jareth spun a crystal from the air and tossed it toward Sarah. The crystal rolled in a circle around her where she stood and then the floor suddenly fell from beneath her feet. He watched her whoosh downward, her startled cry lost in the tumble of the collapsing floor. Instantly the floor sealed up again as if Sarah had never been there. A night spent in an oubliette should teach that chit proper respect toward her sovereign. Jareth stalked out of the room and slammed the door. 


	10. Oops!

Disclaimer: I own nothing from the "Labyrinth". Sorry, out of clever disclaimer appendages today.  
  
Chapter 10  
  
Jareth stormed into his throne room in a full-blown rage. How dare she speak to him like that - as if he were some kind of .of.servant or goblin or something! He had provided her with everything she could possibly desire since she had arrived and had seen to her every comfort. He was even going to make that ungrateful girl his queen and all she could do was curse and shout at him! Throwing her into an oubliette was no more than she deserved. Maybe she would learn a few manners after a cold night spent with whatever was living down there these days. He expected a humble and obedient wife in the morning or he would show her a few places in his labyrinth that were far more frightening than a mere hole in the ground.  
  
He had offered her everything - EVERYTHING - the first time she had entered his world and she had patently rejected him as if his offer were some consolation prize like a year's supply of oven cleaner. When she had wished brother away, he had considerately granted her every wish, reordered time, turned the world upside down, seen her safely through his labyrinth, and offered her his heart and soul, all to no avail. This time she had called on HIM specifically and he had answered her call, fetched her away and treated her like a princess - really almost as if she were his equal, and this was how she repaid him? He was sick and tired of wearing himself out in an effort to impress this.this.spoiled BRAT. Jareth stormed about his throne room kicking the goblins that had the misfortune to be in his path and shattering any number of crystals against the walls and floor as soon as he had spun them into existence.  
  
After half an hour, the floor of his throne room was covered in broken crystal and Jareth was lying on the flagstones, drinking from a cask of mead and feeling like an ass. As his temper waned and he thought about his behavior toward Sarah he started to feel more and more like crawling into an oubliette of his own. Any dark place that would hide him from the light of day for the rest of his life would be just fine. She wasn't all that spoiled after all.really, she had even handled her suddenly changed circumstances rather well. Yes, she had been upset when he'd abducted her, but she had actually been very civil and polite to him the whole time. They may have been adversaries, but she had tried to reason with him to seek a way out of her situation and finding no escape, had risen to the occasion as best she could - no tantrums, no outbursts, no complaints about the unfairness of it all. And he supposed it was a little unfair. She hadn't exactly been fully awake when she had wished herself into his power. In retrospect, Jareth had to admit that she hadn't once lost her temper until he had pretty much attacked her in a fit of lust. Well, she HAD responded to his kiss, so it wasn't as if he hadn't been invited. But then, he grudgingly admitted, a single kiss didn't really give him license to toss her down, rip her clothes off and have his way with her either. Crap, crap, crap, crap, CRAP. With her kiss, she had started to respond to him in a promising way.  
  
And now he'd thrown her into an oubliette.  
  
Dear god, he had THROWN her into an OUBLIETTE. Some of them were rather a long way down. Some of them even had a few .native inhabitants. The sudden image of Sarah lying still and hurt at the bottom of some awful, dark, freezing hole almost stopped his heart. Instantly, he spun a crystal to look in on her. All he saw was darkness. He cursed himself under his breath and with the flick of a wrist, appeared in the oubliette himself. A few muttered words and bright light illuminated the entire cavern.  
  
Sarah was nowhere to be seen. Jareth cast another spell that would locate her swiftly wherever she might be in his labyrinth. Nothing. Either Sarah was under a powerful cloaking spell or .well, the worst that could happen had just happened and she was dead. Sarah couldn't possibly know any cloaking spells.  
  
Jareth had never prayed before. He had never taken the existence of any gods very seriously. Now he felt himself calling on the universe itself, pulling all the magic of the Underground to him and begging for Sarah's safe return. If he couldn't sense her anywhere the chances that she was actually alive and well were very slim. If anything had happened to her, he knew he didn't want to live anymore.  
  
He took another long careful look around the oubliette in case he could spy any signs of blood or struggle, or any clues as to how Sarah might have escaped. He saw nothing but dank, stone walls without a door - a door? Had Sarah somehow figured out a way to use one of his doors? Jareth examined the walls even more carefully and then he found it, almost invisible against the uneven walls if stone. Yes, she had indeed found a portal. She probably remembered what to look for from the last time she had been trapped in an oubliette and he had sent Hoggle to help her out.  
  
Jareth impatiently pulled at the door. It creaked open on rusty hinges and Jareth was shocked to be staring out at his own gardens. He didn't have any oubliettes that would lead to his royal gardens. How in the world had that happened? Then he remembered the spell he had woven on Sarah when he had first brought her to his palace. Of course! She would have opened the door with the intention of escaping and any paths she took would lead her straight back to his palace. Well, good, but then why couldn't he sense her? If she was still breathing he should be able to find her anywhere. He tried his location spell again and again came up with nothing.  
  
Jareth was getting very worried indeed. Well, if she had been trying any doors, she would have ended up back in her room. He should check there first. In an instant, he appeared next to the bed, the sheets still rumpled from his encounter with Sarah earlier in the evening. She was nowhere to be found. He checked the bathroom, the balcony, even the wardrobe.  
  
Jareth was convinced that something awful had happened to her. What made it worse was that whatever had happened was all his fault. Alive or dead she had to be in his palace somewhere and he WOULD find her. Without thinking he found himself running madly from room to room. Wait. If she hadn't ended up back in her room then she couldn't have tried any doors, so Sarah had to be either somewhere out in the open or somewhere that didn't exactly have a door. That left the grounds, the hallways and any room that one could enter without going through an actual door. Oh god. She might be in his staircase room. Without lights, the place could be deadly for anyone who did not know its dimensions by heart. In the blink of an eye, he was standing at the archway. He cast another spell for light and peered into the maze of seemingly infinite staircases and landings.  
  
"Sarah?" he called. His voice echoing off the walls was the only response. "Oh god, what have I done?" 


	11. Lost

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or scenery from "Labyrinth". I do own the really stupid decisions said characters make in this fic though.  
  
Chapter 11  
  
Sarah landed with a sickening thud.  
  
If she had started to harbor doubts about the man she was to marry in the morning, all of them had now vanished. She was now utterly confident that she was about to marry a complete asshole.  
  
She lay in blackness, the chill air of the oubliette starting to seep through the fur lining of Jareth's robe. She was certain she'd heard the sound of cracking bone when she landed. Happily she was far too pissed off to give into panic. A brief check put the worst of her fears to rest. Nothing was bleeding and everything moved the way it should. What was that bone-crunching noise anyway?  
  
She felt around in the darkness until her hand came into contact with something that felt like a bone. So something had died in here. Goody. Sarah wondered briefly if whatever had died had met its demise through neglect or if something else had eaten it. She remembered that Hoggle had once mentioned that not all of Jareth's oubliettes were uninhabited. The thought made her shudder unpleasantly and so she turned her attention back to the problem at hand - being dumped into an oubliette by a Goblin King.  
  
Oooo.. The thought of that arrogant bastard was enough to make her blood boil. To think that once again, she had almost given in to that seductive rot he kept throwing at her. Well, he's revealed his true colors now, she thought a little sadly. Sarah had been hoping that her marriage to Jareth wouldn't be completely miserable. They had even seemed to be starting a tentative friendship of sorts. Married or not, I'm on my own here, she thought with a sigh. Her situation might be dire, but she really didn't want Jareth to come to her aid. In fact, she would feel just fine if she knew she never needed to see that jerk again.  
  
Or maybe.if this means he's thrown me away, I can escape to my own world? Sarah somehow doubted that Jareth would fling her from his power so easily, but she had yet to test the waters of that spell he claimed he had woven around her. No better time than the present.  
  
Sarah felt around for that bone again. If there was anything living down here, it might be better if she did her pokings about with something other than her own hand. Once she had located the bone, Sarah gingerly tried to stand. Within an instant, she collapsed on the floor in a paroxysm of pain. Okay. No weight on the right ankle then. Running anywhere was getting more difficult by the minute. Telling herself not to be a completely helpless idiot, Sarah made a second attempt at standing upright. Whatever had died must have been pretty large. To Sarah's delight, the bone she held in her hand was long enough to serve as a cane of sorts.  
  
Now.the last time she had been dropped into an oubliette, there had been a door. How had Hoggle found it? Sarah remembered the door as being almost invisible, set deep into the rock. She decided her best course of action lay in tapping around the walls of her prison to check for any promising hollow-sounding spots. The oubliette turned out to quite narrow. Sarah could manage to poke along the walls with her cane while keeping her weight on her left foot. To her dismay, the walls of the oubliette seemed quite thick. No hollow spots there. Plenty of dank, disgusting muck. Sarah lowered herself onto a pile of debris with a grunt of disgust, the bone in her hand scraping along the floor.  
  
Wait a minute. What was that? Sarah rapped lightly on the floor with her cane. That was odd. One section of the floor sounded a little funny. Slowly, she knelt in the darkness and felt along the rock floor. Her fingers came into contact with something that felt like a slab of stone, raised a little above the rest of the floor. Further exploration revealed that the slab had a long edge - long enough to be a trapdoor.  
  
Her heart in her throat, Sarah balanced on the cane and tried to pry one edge of the slab up from the floor. To her surprise, the slab was actually quite light and she had no trouble lifting the edge. Eagerly, her fingers searched for an open space beneath it .and came into contact with more solid floor and dank muck. Damn, damn, damn, damn. Ick too. That stupid slab had just been another piece of junk.  
  
A memory tickled the back of Sarah's consciousness. She balanced on the cane again and this time managed to move the slab into what she hoped was an upright vertical position. With a little shove the slab fell easily against the wall of the oubliette. Feeling along the edge of the slab, Sarah felt a notch just big enough for three of her fingers. Holding her breath, she pulled on it.  
  
With a crash, Sarah was knocked off her feet. What in the hell was that?! After a few seconds when nothing emerged to rip her into nice little bits and then eat her for supper, Sarah decided it might be safe to see what had knocked her down. Feeling around in the darkness, Sarah found what had to be.a bucket? Feeling a little further, her hand came into contact with something soft and then a long handle. A mop. Great. She'd found the broom closet.  
  
Think. Think. Hadn't Hoggle just turned the door another way to create an escape last time? Sarah hadn't been paying close attention back then, which, after all, had been thirteen YEARS ago. Well, she had a husband-to- be who didn't seem that keen on keeping her in daylight and was facing a possibly long and drawn-out death inside the dark hole he had thrown her into. What did she have to lose by opening a door? She figured that at worst, she faced a quicker death than she would by just waiting around.  
  
Within a minute she had struggled to her one good foot and leaning against the wall, managed to feel along the slab with the intention of shoving it into a different position and then trying again. What she found was another notch. What the hell? She pulled on it and the door fell open. Then Sarah's jaw fell open too.  
  
The gardens? What the heck was an oubliette doing opening onto the palace gardens? With a sick lurch she remembered Jareth's words about the spell he had cast on her. You would find that every path you took led you straight back to my palace and that every door you opened would have opened into your room. Sarah wasn't sure that the door to the oubliette really counted as an actual door since it had so many other possibilities, but at least it hadn't opened into her room. Only one way to find out if this spell was really real.  
  
She took up the bone she had been using as a cane and with a combination of hopping and hobbling moved into the garden maze. It was even colder outside than it had been in the oubliette, but Sarah was determined to make her getaway. She followed the path around several curves and found herself facing a side door to the palace. Bollucks. Wrong way. She turned around to see if another turn would lead her out of the hedge maze and found herself face to face with a dead end. She would have laughed if she hadn't been so exhausted.  
  
Seeing no other options, Sarah limped inside the palace door. Door. She had to find a door inside and try it, just to be sure. She found a small red door on the right that she KNEW led to an armory. Hoggle had shown it to her only that morning. All the color drained from her face as she opened the door only to look in on her bed, the covers tossed about from her earlier fight with Jareth.  
  
No. She would NOT go in there. She didn't care where she slept tonight. All she knew was that she didn't want Jareth to find her. If he thought she was in the oubliette, it left her that many more hours to figure some way out of her predicament. Sarah remembered the pillow pit in the ballroom with distaste. She didn't want to think of how she had felt at the ball, dancing in Jareth's arms - especially now that he had left her alone in the dark, and for all he knew, badly hurt. That said, the pillows in there would be a lot softer than the marble floors of the hallway.  
  
She crept down several hallways to where she thought she remembered the ballroom was located and pushed one of the double doors open only to look in on her own bedroom again. So he had been telling the truth and she was trapped here.  
  
Sarah almost burst into tears of frustration and then stopped herself. What about rooms that a person could enter without really opening a door? Her mind flew to the throne room. NO. He might be there. She would just have to cast about and look for the first room she came to.  
  
After another few minutes of struggling down the palace corridors, she found what she was looking for. The entrance to the room was no more than a simple archway in the wall, darkness beyond. Praying that she wouldn't end up in her bedchamber again, Sarah stepped through. The dim light from the passageway did little to illuminate the room. Sarah could make out the space in front of her and what appeared to be a staircase going down. Come on, foot, she thought, gritting her teeth to make it down the stairs. She inched down each step, leaning on her bone cane as much as possible. Finally, she came to a landing and started to tap about with her cane to gauge its size. With the bone, she found what she quickly realized was another staircase. Hmmm.had she found the way to a cellar? But this room seemed so open.  
  
Sarah had hopped her halfway down the next set of steps when she was struck by a chilling thought. What if she were in that awful staircase room? Her first time in the palace, she had gone through the throne room to get to it, but what if it had other entrances? The prospect of being trapped in a maze of stairs with a twisted ankle was enough to make her turn around right there. Sarah started hopping up the stairs the way she came, but found the going up to be much more difficult. She was leaning on her bone cane trying to make the next step when she accidentally hopped onto the folds of her robe and tripped.  
  
Sarah found herself in a heap on a cold stone floor for the second time that evening. This time when she tried to stand, she couldn't. Something was broken and it was her left ankle. Sarah did cry now, great, tearing sobs. She only prayed that the Goblin King wouldn't find her. Then again, who else would? She had yet to see even so much as a single Goblin and she had already been in the palace for a full day and nearly two nights.  
  
She had nowhere to run and no functional legs to run on even if she could. All Sarah knew then was that she was very, very tired. After crying a few more minutes, Sarah pillowed her head on the sleeve of her robe and gave herself up to sleep. 


	12. Reconciliation

Disclaimer: I own nothing from "Labyrinth". The femur is mine.  
  
Chapter 12  
  
Sarah's presence struck Jareth like a bolt of lightening. She was alive after all! Jareth wanted to sing. Jareth wanted to dance. But where was she?  
  
Jareth called again into the darkness and again received silence for an answer. He reached out with his senses and started to trace her. Heavens! She was only twenty feet away! But something was wrong. Jareth fueled his light spell a little brighter and transported himself toward the spot where her essence glowed most strongly.  
  
When he saw the crumpled form lying in a heap on a landing, Jareth's heart stopped in his chest. He rushed to Sarah and gathered her tenderly into his arms to check for injuries. She was still breathing and seemed to be deeply asleep. He felt over her limbs and quickly discovered her broken bone and twisted ankle. Then he saw the giant femur Sarah had been using as a cane lying off to the side. He guessed that if she had been carrying something like that with her she might well have been injured before she ever left the oubliette. Or she might have been planning to clout him over the head with it the moment she saw him. Not that he would blame her. His future bride was nothing if not resourceful.  
  
Speaking of resourceful, he wondered how in the world she had hidden her presence from him. He didn't sense any spells or magical artifacts. There wasn't anyone in his kingdom powerful enough to cloak her presence like that except himself. Curiouser and curiouser.  
  
Focusing his mind on Sarah's ankles, Jareth took off his gloves and stroked his hands lightly over them, allowing power to flow through his fingertips into her body. He started to feel a glow inside like sunshine. Healing spells often refracted a little onto the caster which made it easier to keep the enchantment going. A golden light slowly engulfed the two of them as Jareth moved his power up the rest of Sarah's body, tending to cuts and scrapes. He felt like pond scum as he healed the bruises on her wrists - bruises he knew he had caused with his own hands. Once Sarah's healing was complete, Jareth lifted her to his chest and whispered a few words. With a shower of stardust, the two of them appeared in Jareth's bedroom.  
  
Jareth carried Sarah to the bed that would soon belong to both of them. He was at a loss. How could he ever win her forgiveness after what he had done? He truly had never meant to hurt her, just teach her a lesson. And their relationship had even been going so well before, all things considered. He knelt down on the bed beside her and traced the shape of her lips with his fingers.  
  
Sarah's eyes slowly cracked open. She felt wonderful. Not only did she not feel any pain, she felt like she had just received a massive dose of sunshine, springtime and tweeting birds. For a moment she thought she might be dead. Which wasn't all that bad if it felt this good.  
  
Then she felt a gloved finger trace over her lips and pulled back with a gasp.  
  
"You!" she hissed. Okay, so she wasn't dead.  
  
For a moment Jareth didn't know what to say. He knew his actions had been inexcusable.  
  
"Yes, me. Whom were you expecting?"  
  
"The Angel of Death might have been nice," she rejoined bitterly. Well, maybe she was being a little overdramatic, but he deserved it. Assuming he would even care.  
  
Jareth winced.  
  
"Sarah, I am a king and as any monarch, I expect respect and obedience from all of my minions - including you. Dropping you into an oubliette was certainly a less painful way of proving a point to you than some of my more standard methods - unless you would like an introduction to a few of those?" Goblin dung. That was just a lovely way to tell her he was sorry.  
  
Sarah was in such a rage that she didn't care what happened to her anymore. "Perhaps you had better introduce me to a few of your 'other methods', just so I can know what to expect from such a loving husband."  
  
Her words hit Jareth like a physical blow.  
  
"Sarah." he grasped her arms and pulled her to him. He had to make her understand how sorry he was. Dammit. He was new at this whole admitting-he- had-been-an-ass thing. Sarah didn't resist him. She just looked at him with those unrelentingly cruel eyes.  
  
"Sarah.please.I don't want to be your adversary. I.I lo-" Jareth stopped himself. He couldn't just tell her THAT could he? Then she would know the power she had over him. He started over. "I am your king. You will do as I say. I was wrong to drop you into an oubliette. I'm sorry." Well, not exactly humble words, but the best he could do.  
  
Sarah had been watching him calmly, but her mind had been racing. She sensed that this might be a moment that she could get a concession from the man. He was apologizing to her after all and seemed badly shaken if his white face and trembling hands were any indication. Her glance never wavered from his as she gambled.  
  
"Jareth, you have asked me to be your queen and rule by your side, yes?"  
  
Jareth's eyes narrowed. What scheme was brewing inside that lovely head of hers this time?  
  
"Yes," he said warily.  
  
"You expect me to share your bed and give myself to you willingly as your wife, am I right?"  
  
"I do." His whole body sprang to life at the thought of it actually.  
  
"I cannot marry a man who drops me into oubliettes and then threatens me with 'other methods' of enforcing my 'obedience'. I cannot be your queen by your side if you only intend to order me about and torture me however you see fit if I disagree with you. I could never, never come willingly to the bed of any man who would abuse me."  
  
This gamble was a big one. Sarah was betting that Jareth must want to marry her for some reason he had not revealed to her - otherwise why even offer her the option of becoming his wife? He could have had her as a slave easily enough if that was what he truly wanted. He certainly didn't love her but he must have some other motivation for offering her marriage; and she had staked everything on the hope that whatever he wanted from her, he wanted it badly enough to agree to a bargain. If marrying Jareth was what she had to do to see her own world again, she would do it - but on her own terms.  
  
"Sarah, are you telling me that you won't be my wife?" Jareth's tone was cool but he felt himself dying in slow, excruciating little bits.  
  
"No," Sarah stated, tone equally cool. "I'm telling you that I won't tolerate your abuse. I'm not one of your minions, Jareth. I am your queen."  
  
His queen. Jareth went very still. She wasn't refusing him. She wasn't exactly offering the obedience he expected in his queen either. He tried to put himself in her position. He didn't think she knew his feelings for her, but he imagined that she might have guessed there was something at stake on his side. He supposed if he were in her position, he might look for some kind of guarantee that he wouldn't be tossed into any more holes as well. She needn't have worried, but ah well.  
  
"Very well. Then I've brought you a gift." Jareth pulled a crystal from the air and to his shock, felt it shatter in his hand. What in the hell had done that? He sensed a powerful magic force around them, but it was only just that - raw and unguided. He looked up at Sarah and saw that she had dragged herself clear over to the other side of the bed where she sat watching him with stark terror in her eyes. Could that force have come from HER? Surely not. No human - even one turned fae - would have magic on a scale that could shatter one of his crystals. His spell had been harmless enough besides. He had only intended to give Sarah an engagement gift, albeit one with magical properties.  
  
Some kind of magic was running loose though. He would have to find out what it was. But first things first.  
  
"Sarah," he started, slowly spinning a new crystal in front of her. "You have my solemn vow that I will never harm you or allow harm to come to you. As my wife, you will be under the most powerful magical protections I can spin around you - even if those spells are protecting you from me." The crystal collapsed in Jareth's hand and Sarah drew closer to see what he was holding. Her mouth fell open in surprise at the beautiful ring in his palm. She couldn't recognize the stones, but they seemed to shimmer with a translucent light of their own. The metal of the band was so fine it looked almost like liquid and was intricately marked with symbols in a language she didn't recognize.  
  
"An engagement ring," Jareth smiled, clasping Sarah's left hand and slipping it onto her ring finger. "The spells in this ring will protect you from most harmful magics, including my own. Of course the spell that holds you to me will remain intact."  
  
"Of course," Sarah said sardonically. Was this guy for real? And why had his crystal shattered the first time? What was THAT? Had he been intending to turn her into an aardvark and thought better of it? She did remember a violent force of energy flowing from her as she had been scrambling away from him.  
  
Wait a minute. Had SHE broken his crystal? She was turning fae after all. Did humans acquire magical abilities if they stayed in the Underground long enough? She was certain Jareth would have mentioned it.and yet maybe not. If she did have magical abilities that could interfere with his own, then he might not want her to find out about them.  
  
Instantly she started formulating a plan. She knew Jareth had a library. Perhaps there were books on magic there? She gave Jareth a radiant smile. It would be easier to get what she wanted from him if they were on good terms.  
  
"Thank you for the ring," she said, trying to sound pleasant.  
  
"My queen deserves no less," he rejoined.  
  
Sarah couldn't resist raising an eyebrow at that comment given the way she had just spent most of her evening. With a great effort, she suppressed the brilliant smart-ass retort that was twitching on the end of her tongue. Instead, she smiled wryly and said, "You told me that I should let you know if there was anything I required. This future queen may need some sturdy crutches to make it through her wedding tomorrow. Anything you might be able to help with?"  
  
Jareth looked down and turned a little red. He knew he had been the worst kind of fool to ever place Sarah in danger. He hoped she would be able to forgive him when she saw just how loving and attentive he could be as a husband. At least he had one nice surprise to offer her this evening.  
  
"Well," he grinned wickedly at her, "I was planning to toss you over my shoulder for the ceremony."  
  
Sarah's eyes went huge. He wouldn't.  
  
"But I thought you might prefer to walk so everyone can see your lovely gown."  
  
With that, Jareth drew her to her feet.  
  
He could have knocked Sarah over with a feather. She was standing - really STANDING - pain free. She tried hopping from one foot to the other and then in a fit of relief, did a little jig.  
  
"How." Sarah turned questioning eyes toward the king, who was watching her with a broad smile.  
  
"Perhaps I'm not the wicked sorcerer you think I am," he said gently.  
  
Sarah gave him a doubtful look.  
  
"Well, at least not all the time." Jareth looked at her sheepishly.  
  
This time, Sarah couldn't resist a genuine smile. He did look as if she'd given him a scare. Well good. Maybe he would think twice before dropping her in an oubliette next time.  
  
Maybe.  
  
She simply had to get into that library.  
  
"Thank you, Jareth," Sarah said sweetly, reminding herself to stay on Jareth's good side. "Now I'm really feeling quite tired."  
  
"Ah, yes. Well, I'll send someone to help you with your gown in the morning."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
She turned to go into her room and was stopped by a gloved hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Sarah, I do give you my promise that I will never do anything like that again."  
  
She looked up at him from where she stood and was startled by the tenderness and sorrow in his eyes. There was something else there too, something so powerful that she wasn't sure she wanted to face it. Sarah didn't know if she could trust Jareth's word or not, but decided that now was not the time to press a point.  
  
"Goodnight, Jareth," she said as she slipped from beneath his hand.  
  
"Goodnight, my love."  
  
Jareth couldn't resist one tender caress of her hair as she turned to go.  
  
Sarah suppressed a shudder. She couldn't believe the desire that burst into flame inside her at his slightest touch. What was worse, she couldn't believe she had that kind of reaction to someone who could put her through physical and emotional hell without even blinking.  
  
At that thought, Sarah made her first bold, queenly decision. Whatever she felt, she wasn't going to deal with it tonight. Okay, so that wasn't really bold, but she had to get some sleep before her (gulp) wedding night.  
  
Thinking of her wedding night was enough for Sarah to pour herself another decanter of wine, down it in three swallows and collapse on the sheets. Hmmm.these sheets smelled.strange.like.pine trees and grass and starlight and oranges and cinnamon and sunshine.what WAS that heavenly scent? Shit. It was HIS scent. Feeling certain that she should give up on sleep altogether, Sarah promptly passed out. 


	13. To Have and to Hold

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from the "Labyrinth", but Whimsyn and Damien are MINE aaaaallllllll MINE!!! Mwaahahahahah!!  
  
Chapter 13  
  
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!!  
  
Sarah had only just closed her eyes. What the hell was that?! And why was sunlight streaming through her windows?  
  
Sarah didn't even remember getting out of bed and answering the door. She wasn't even sure she was standing upright and even if she was, she couldn't see anything anyway. Well, okay. Maybe if she pried her hand off of her forehead and eyes, she would have better luck with the eyesight thing.  
  
Looking down through bleary eyes, Sarah was greeted by a sight that she simply accepted as part of a dream. She couldn't possibly be awake.  
  
Standing before her, was the strangest little man - or was he a goblin? - dressed in a pristine, sky-blue coat with matching breeches. On his head was a small cap with a graceful silver feather that fell over his hat brim to touch the silver-trimmed ruff around his neck. His body was covered in white fur. Curious gold-flecked eyes looked her up and down in an appraising manner.  
  
"I've seen worse," were the first words out of the creature's mouth.  
  
Make that a rude strange little dream creature.  
  
Sarah just stared at him dumbly - too thunderstruck by his appearance to move, too tired to care.  
  
The white, furry being cleared his throat and looked at her pointedly. Sarah noticed then that he was carrying a number of large, beautifully wrapped boxes somehow strapped on his back. Fine. Make that a STRONG rude strange little dream creature.  
  
She stepped back from the door wonderingly and stared as he entered her room and set to work. In minutes her entire room was covered in bags and boxes and bows. She could kiss any hopes of going back to bed goodbye.  
  
The little creature paused in his flurry of unwrappings and stared at her.  
  
"Take these," he said brusquely, thrusting several stoppered bottles at her. "Now scrub really well. You look a wreck."  
  
Sarah stood where she was, eyes barely open, mouth opening and closing in a mixture of sleep and indignation.  
  
"Oh for the love of drunken goblin!" the little man/beast/thing exclaimed. But this time his voice sounded faintly compassionate. "Here."  
  
He produced a crystal, very much like one of Jareth's, but smaller and blue. In an instant it popped in his hand and became a steaming mug of .could it really be.COFFEE? Sarah almost cried with happiness as she took the mug from his hand and drained it as quickly as its hot temperature would allow. After a few minutes of sipping, she felt much more awake and alive - really almost human, not that her present company could relate.  
  
She thought an introduction was in order before she dropped her robes and started to wash with her odd companion nearby. She cleared her throat.  
  
"Aren't you in the bath yet?" he snapped, whiskers moving impatiently. "I've got a lot of work to do and at the moment, I can't work with THAT," he indicated her rumpled presence disdainfully.  
  
Sarah was about to say something cutting about snippy, sky-blue trousered puppies when she remembered her cup of coffee. Okay. The coffee was huge. She would let the rudeness slide just this once. With a weak smile, she trotted off to the bathroom clutching the bottles he had given her.  
  
Thirty minutes later, she emerged, skin glowing and smelling like summer.  
  
"MUCH better!!" the little man cried. "A little less like a kitchen goblin at least. Well, we only have two hours for me to bring out whatever it is his majesty sees in you. Let's pray for a miracle."  
  
With those encouraging words, the small white dog (well, he looked like one so that was how Sarah decided to think of him for the moment) set to the task of dressing her. Even though Sarah had worked in the theater for years, she had never been forced to endure the level of plucking, manicuring, powdering and general artistic scrutiny that she was forced to undergo in those two hours. It was torture. But it was actually kind of fun. Fun torture. That sounded just like the Jareth she knew. No wonder he had selected this particular specimen of a fashion consultant to get her ready for her wedding day.  
  
As Sarah's lengthy primping session drew to a close, she found that she was actually enjoying herself. Whimsyn, as he had later introduced himself, might not be an exactly patient sort of companion, but he had a positively wicked sense of humor and knew how to work miracles with all those girly things that Sarah had never given herself time to indulge in. Her stomach remained coiled in dread when she thought of the impending ceremony, but Whimsyn's scathingly funny comments about the guests who were sure to attend and non-stop instructional monologue on a proper beauty regimen were enough to distract her from her fears. She even managed to down half an egg and several slices of toast as he worked on her toenails.  
  
Finally, Whimsyn produced a dress that he presented to Sarah with a flourish. The beaded material was so fine, it looked more a like a spider web covered with dew than ordinary cloth. The overdress consisted of a tight, beaded bodice with a graceful neckline that scooped low over Sarah's bosom and shoulders. The skirt fell in gauzy sections that fanned out whenever she walked to reveal the embroidered under dress beneath. Whimsyn placed a silver filigree belt around Sarah's hips, accented with a single crystal in the front and then caught Sarah's hair up in several beaded bands that matched her dress. Her sable hair fell over and behind the bands, curled into soft ringlets by Whimsyn's skillful hands. Here and there he had added a tiny braid that he wove a few beads into to give the effect of "stars hanging in a midnight sky".  
  
Sarah would have been less poetic, but after surveying herself in the mirror, she thought she looked pretty good - for her. She looked .somehow innocent, even virginal. Well, she wasn't quite a virgin, but given the fact that the man she was marrying was Jareth, she figured she might as well be. Her cheeks went a little pale at the thought and Whimsyn hastened to add a little more color to her lips and cheeks.  
  
He looked at the breathtakingly lovely woman before him with compassion. He didn't know exactly why, but he could tell that she was more than a little nervous - even frightened.  
  
"I daresay, I have outdone myself," he said - for once, intending his words to be more encouraging than smug. "My dear, no one could possibly outshine you today."  
  
"Thank you." Sarah worked up the ghost of a smile. "Thank you for everything."  
  
Without thinking, she hugged her new friend. Whimsyn was shocked and then elated. He had never been HUGGED by a member of the royal family before. Those other sodden prigs who called themselves masters of costume and fashion would eat their HEARTS out. Plus, he genuinely liked this girl.  
  
They jumped apart as another sharp rap sounded at the door. A familiar voice called "My lady!" and Sarah rushed to meet her new guest. When she opened the door to her room, she was delighted to find not only Sir Didymus waiting for her, but Hoggle and Ludo as well. With a joyful shout she flung herself into their waiting arms.  
  
"Oh thank god you're all here. I am SO glad to see you!" she cried.  
  
"My lady, no sun was ever more radiant than you are today!" Sir Didymus rejoined, looking admiringly at her.  
  
Ludo simply said "Sa-wah! Back!" and Hoggle turned a little pink and looked at the ground. After a minute he said, "Ya sure look nice, Sarah."  
  
Sarah was so grateful that she didn't have to go through her wedding completely alone that she almost burst into tears on the spot. She controlled herself when she remembered that any display was likely to earn her another half hour under the ministrations of Whimsyn. Two hours of solid beautification had left her feeling a little "primped out" for the time being.  
  
"Won't you all come in and sit down?" she said, gesturing them all in. "Maybe we can rustle up some tea or something."  
  
"I'm afraid there's no time for that," Hoggle cut in. "We've actually been sent to get you for the ceremony."  
  
"What?! But it's so soon!" she gasped in dismay.  
  
"Well, His Highness has the rest of the day blocked off for celebratin'. Plus it's bad luck to see the bride before the weddin' and I think he'd like to see YOU as soon as possible," Hoggle explained. He knew Sarah was probably terrified, but she had agreed to marry Jareth, so she might as well get it over with and then get good and drunk.  
  
Ludo and Sir Didymus seemed to be of the same mind as the three of them practically dragged Sarah out the door. Sarah was completely confused. Had Jareth been thinking she would change her mind? It seemed awfully strange to rush willy-nilly into one of the most important events of her entire life when she hadn't even had a second cup of coffee.  
  
Sarah's friends pulled her down what seemed to be an endless string of corridors before they finally slowed in front of a massive set of double doors. Ludo enveloped her in a furry embrace and then Sir Didymus pulled her to him for a fatherly kiss. She was certain she saw tears in Hoggle's eyes as he handed her an enormous bouquet.  
  
"Whimsyn told me to give you this. He said your hands were shaking so badly it was rattling the beads on yer dress."  
  
At least someone had thought to give her flowers! She had been feeling pretty naked there.  
  
"And Sarah.if you ever need us.for anything at all."  
  
Sarah had time for a last glimpse of her friends over her shoulder before the giant doors opened and they prodded her forward. Music streamed through out into the corridor and she realized belatedly that this must be her grand bridal entrance. Crud. She hadn't gone over any of this wedding stuff with anyone! What the heck was she supposed to do? She guessed that walking forward would be a good start. Sarah couldn't quite manage a smile, but she held her head high and managed not to trip on her hem which was all she was able to demand of herself at the moment.  
  
When she saw the Goblin King waiting for her at the end of the aisle, her knees nearly gave out from under her. He was magnificent. He stood resplendent in a black frock coat with silver embroidery, looking more imposing than ever. His silver-blonde hair cascaded loosely over his shoulders and the sword at his side gleamed against the midnight folds of his cloak. Then there was the matter of the pants. Skin tight and perfectly cut. Keep your eyes off the pants!! You're supposed to look virginal here! Sarah thought, desperately hoping her thoughts were well-hidden. As she felt the flush creep up her neck, she figured she had failed to keep her composure yet again.  
  
The chapel was packed with a motley assortment of beautiful fae and other Underground creatures, all riveted to the trembling bride making her way down the aisle. As Sarah drew nearer, Jareth caught his breath. She was even lovelier than he had imagined she would be. He felt his heart ricochet wildly between the deepest of loves and raw animal lust. How could this mere girl have such an effect on him? And how could he ever have been so lucky as to have her standing here, ready to commit herself to him for life? He pinched himself surreptitiously beneath the folds of his cloak just to make sure he was awake.  
  
As Sarah reached him, her friends, having followed her down the aisle in case she fainted, moved to either side of the dias where Jareth waited. He gently grasped her hand and guided her up the last stairs. Together the two of them knelt as a druid, face hidden in a deep blue cowl, stood ready to intone the rites of their union. Jareth placed his arm around Sarah possessively, holding her close to his side as the ritual that would bind them together as husband and wife began. For once, Sarah was grateful that Jareth was holding her tightly to him. It was her only guarantee that she wouldn't collapse.  
  
Most of the ceremony passed in a blur for both of them. Sarah was only aware of Jareth's eyes and the look in them when she repeated after the druid that yes, she would be his wife, and would love, honor, cherish and be faithful to him for all the rest of her days. Jareth in turn pressed both of her hands to his heart when he made his vow to love her for all eternity, be faithful to her, care for her and protect her until his dying breath. As her hands felt the strength of Jareth's heartbeat while he held them to his chest, Sarah was completely confused by the whole thing. She had expected the vows to be no more than a few formal, empty words. He looked as if he meant what he was saying with all of his soul.  
  
Jareth did mean it. Well, when he could even keep his mind on the words he was saying. He was far too busy devouring his bride with his eyes throughout the ceremony. She was his. All his. And would never, ever belong to anyone else but him.  
  
The druid performing the rites gave Jareth a cup to drink from that Jareth in turn passed to Sarah. After their vows and the ritual cup ceremony were complete, Jareth slipped a simple gold band on Sarah's hand and leaned in to seal their nuptials with a kiss.  
  
Neither of them really knew what happened next.  
  
Sarah closed her eyes and allowed Jareth to pull her to him. As soon as his lips touched her own, she saw exploding lights behind her closed eyelids and felt an enormous surge of energy well up inside her body. Sarah couldn't put a name to what was going on, but it felt like a river of golden light had come pouring out of her. The stranger part of it was that she could feel something else pouring IN. Something so powerful and deep and loving that she couldn't understand it, but instead was left to accept it and beckon it to her with open arms. Sarah felt her arms twine around Jareth's neck as she pressed the full length of her body to his. How his hair became tangled in her fingers, she couldn't say and didn't care.  
  
Jareth was thunderstruck to feel the force of power that arose to greet his when he kissed Sarah. He knew that for the first time in his life, he was in the presence of someone whose power equaled his own. He didn't think Sarah was aware of the forces she held at her command, but he knew they might be his ruin anyway. Whatever happened, she was HIS now. His wife. His love. He imagined that he was holding her so tightly that he was probably giving her bruises. But he couldn't seem to stop himself from crushing her to him any more than she could stop herself from opening her mouth to his demanding lips and deepening their kiss.  
  
The clash and subsequent twining of energy between the newly wedded couple did not go unnoticed among their guests. A nervous rumbling erupted in the pews around the newlyweds and more than one eyebrow was raised in surprise at the passionately kissing couple. No mortal-turned-fae had ever possessed any more than the most basic of magics. Any fae could tell that whatever force was coming from Jareth's bride was a good deal above the rudimentary. A few of the wiser guests exchanged grins. Jareth probably had no idea what he had just gotten himself into by marrying a woman as powerful as THAT.  
  
Finally their kiss ended and Jareth and Sarah were left staring at each other with somewhat dazed expressions. Sarah blushed furiously as she belatedly untangled her arms from Jareth's neck and stepped away. Jareth had recovered more quickly and chose not to unwind his arms from Sarah's waist. He was looking at her the way a wolf looks at a lamb. Sarah was busy embodying an entirely different animal spirit. She reminded Jareth of a deer in headlights. What fun! He was only too happy to spend the rest of the evening seducing his wife.  
  
With a joyful shout, he scooped his startled bride up in his arms and turned to the assembled guests.  
  
"Let the dancing commence!" he cried and swept down the aisle, carrying his now mildly panicked wife. Sarah hadn't been dancing in years. She only hoped that Jareth's feet were already good and calloused.  
  
They were ushered into Jareth's ballroom in an enthusiastic procession of fae, goblins, and other magical Underground creatures. Sarah's eyes darted frantically around the ballroom from her perch in Jareth's arms, hoping to catch a glimpse of Sir Didymus, Hoggle, or Ludo. Jareth, however, only had eyes for his new wife and had no intention of allowing her to leave his side.  
  
He strode over to the center of the ballroom and lightly set Sarah on her feet.  
  
"My love," he murmured into her ear, "I must claim the first dance."  
  
Oh. My. God. Jareth's entire court was watching them. Sarah fixed a brilliant smile onto her face and leaned in toward Jareth with desperate eyes.  
  
"The last time I danced with anyone, I was dancing with YOU," she hissed under her breath, her smile remaining firmly in place.  
  
"Well, good. That is only as it should be," Jareth grinned. Then he leaned down and whispered, "As I recall you were a magnificent dancer. Don't worry, love. We're in this together."  
  
Sarah's eyebrows rose in wonder at his encouragement and she took his hand. She had forgotten how easy it was to follow Jareth's lead and started to relax as he effortlessly whirled her around the ballroom. As the music grew more spirited and more couples joined them on the dance floor, Sarah even started to smile. She had always wanted to take ballroom dancing lessons, but somehow never could manage to fit it in between her various waitressing jobs and her busy rehearsal schedule. Sarah was having such a good time that she didn't notice that Jareth was dancing her toward one of the more secluded areas of the ballroom.  
  
As Jareth watched the flushed and smiling face of the woman in his arms, he felt extremely pleased with himself. This time she wouldn't run from him. A moment alone in a curtained alcove would make their dance even more.pleasant.  
  
Sarah suddenly noticed where they were heading and a flicker of consternation crossed her features. She had hoped for a little more time to prepare herself mentally before she and the goblin king were left alone.  
  
"Leaving us so soon? Surely not! Allow me to cut in," a silken voice said over her shoulder.  
  
Jareth barely suppressed a curse as he looked into the laughing brown eyes of his younger brother. His gaze shot daggers as he gracefully stepped aside and allowed Damien to take Sarah into his arms. Jareth cleared his throat in a threatening manner when Damien pulled Sarah closer, and Damien took a discreet step back, looking a bit like a kicked puppy.  
  
"I'll take good care of her, brother," he promised, a devilish twinkle in his eyes as he gazed down at a very nervous Sarah.  
  
"I'm afraid I'm rather protective of my wife. I would be quite wroth if any harm befell her while she was out of my arms," Jareth murmured, his smile oozing menace.  
  
"Ah.yes. I'll try to return her to you in one piece," Damien chuckled, already waltzing her away.  
  
Sarah was torn between relief at gaining a rain check from intimacy with her husband and panic at the fact that she had been passed into the arms of a stranger. She hoped Damien could dance as well as Jareth. If not, she hoped he was wearing thick boots.  
  
"I didn't know Jareth had a brother," Sarah said, thinking she might as well start a conversation. With any luck, Damien might be able to give her more information about the man she'd just committed her life to.  
  
"How in the world did he ever convince a gorgeous creature like you to marry him?" Damien smiled, his brown hair falling over his forehead making him seem boyishly naughty.  
  
Sarah's discomfort increased. Damien was looking at her the way a dog looks at a dripping bone. However, if she could stand up to Jareth, she decided she could certainly handle his younger brother. If she was to live among the fae for the rest of her days, she might as well grab the bull by the horns when it came to dealing with them.  
  
Sarah smiled directly into Damien's all-too-hungry eyes and settled for the truth.  
  
"Blackmail," she purred.  
  
Damien laughed delightedly.  
  
"Of course, the clever bastard. It's only a shame that he found something to blackmail you with before I did. I'm much more pleasant company."  
  
Sarah only arched a brow at him as she whirled under his arm. He really was a decent dancer. Thank god.  
  
"I wonder how he managed to bring you back since you did defeat him at his own game - and when you were a mere child at that. Care to enlighten me?"  
  
Sarah did NOT want to get into it. The thought of being torn away from her family caused a shadow to cross her face. They must still be terribly worried about her. The curiosity in Damien's eyes was becoming even more intense, so Sarah laughed lightly and tried to deflect his attention.  
  
"But I've already answered one of your questions, so it's time for you to answer one of mine. Shouldn't you be regaling me with amusing stories about Jareth when he was a boy? Surely there must be something about him that I don't know."  
  
As she spoke, Sarah decided to smile and look up at him through her lashes flirtatiously. Feminine wiles had to be good for something.  
  
Damien fell for it hook, line and sinker. Within an instant he was animatedly recounting a story about a very young Jareth who had mistakenly turned himself into a bunnyrabbit while he had been attempting to master the spell for transforming himself into an owl. Apparently he had copied down the spell wrong and ended up stuck as a rabbit for three days before Damien had helped him find the right book and the two of them had reversed the spell. Damien had been a little sad to see his brother regain his own form since it had been immensely fun to watch his nose wiggle when he ate carrots.  
  
Jareth heard Sarah's musical laughter and strode to her side before he could be completely consumed with jealousy.  
  
"Ah, pardon me, but I must reclaim my wife for awhile. Sarah, there are some people who I simply must introduce you to."  
  
Sarah reluctantly left Damien's stories and followed her husband, but inside she was feeling rather pleased with herself. Her conversation with Damien had confirmed what she suspected - magic had to be LEARNED - and could be learned from BOOKS. Her impulse to get into Jareth's library had been correct then. Well, good. She would start her studies as soon as possible.  
  
Jareth spent the next several hours introducing his queen to the various members of the court. He was growing more impressed with his young wife by the minute. She remembered everything he had told her yesterday and was putting her knowledge to good use. He could tell that the other nobles were surprised at the grace and ease Jareth's Aboveground wife exuded. Of course they would have been expecting someone who was no doubt lovely, but clumsy and uneducated about their ways. Jareth felt himself puff up a bit with possessive pride. Sarah had surprised them all.  
  
After awhile, Jareth guided Sarah over to the enormous pillow pit in the center of the ballroom. Sarah hesitated, since the sight of that pillow pit held somewhat embarrassing memories for her. Years ago, while she had been whirling around this same ballroom in the Goblin King's arms, she had wanted Jareth to fling her down onto the cushions and kiss her senseless. She was amazed that such a distant memory could still make her feel so ashamed.  
  
Jareth saw the look on her face and misread it as exhaustion. Without preamble, he took her in his arms and eased her onto the pillows, and then sat down next to her, pulling her close. He gestured to a servant for food and wine and turned to look down at his wife. With a sigh, Sarah rested her head on his shoulder. The unconscious intimacy in the gesture made Jareth feel positively silly with happiness.  
  
The servant returned and Jareth handed Sarah a glass of wine and some fruit. She took both gratefully and looked at him with questioning eyes over the rim of her glass.  
  
"What?" he asked with an indulgent smile.  
  
"Oh, nothing," she demurred, clearly abashed to have been caught staring.  
  
"No, tell me." Jareth's voice was firm and his grip on her tightened. She belonged to him and secrets of any kind were unacceptable.  
  
Sarah was about to demur again and then saw the dangerous look on Jareth's face and thought better of it.  
  
"It's just that.well, what's in this for you? By marrying you, I can see my family and let them know that I'm alive and well. But why would you want to marry me? I'm certain you could have your pick of any of the fairy princesses who have been following you about and looking at me as if I were some kind of slug."  
  
So she had noticed? Wonderful!  
  
Sarah continued, "Why would you marry some human woman whom you have no reason even to like? This whole thing makes no sense to me, Jareth."  
  
"Makes no sense at all..for the world to fall." Jareth hummed, leaning in closer to Sarah. His gorgeous mouth hovered dangerously near her own before dipping lower so that his lips touched her collarbone. She gasped as she felt one gloved hand trace the low neckline of her gown over her shoulders and down to where it dove to expose the tops of her breasts. Slowly, his hand skimmed lower, over the curve of her bosom and past her waist and hips to settle firmly on her bottom.  
  
Sarah couldn't believe that her husband was feeling her up in front of all of their guests. Well, as she looked around at the debauchery that most of the now-drunken party was participating in, she supposed his attentions were rather mild compared to what was going on around them. Even so, there were a few things that she was shy about in her Aboveground-human-society- like way and this was definitely one of them.  
  
"Please." she whispered, trying to pull away. Jareth only pressed her more firmly into the pillows and covered her protesting lips with his own. She felt devoured by his kiss. The passion that flamed through her entire body as his lips claimed hers was like a brand. Her mouth parted beneath his and she couldn't resist the pleasure of flicking her tongue against his. He tasted so sweet.almost like peaches and honey. Sarah was so lost in the moment that she didn't resist as he grasped both of her hands and pressed them into the softness of the cushions, allowing him easy access to her lovely neck and shoulders. He started to nibble gently on her lower lip, teasing the corners of her mouth until she thought she would die of anticipation. Against her will, a low moan of pleasure escaped her. The lust in Jareth's eyes burned brighter as his eyes raked over her triumphantly. Sarah caught the look and went still.  
  
"No," she breathed.  
  
Jareth was poised to ignore her and explore the fascinatingly low neckline on her gown some more when he heard the first hoots and whistles from the crowd. Drat. Of course their guests would be eager to encourage their every "happiness". This was hardly unusual among fae who were famous for their wedding-party orgies, but Jareth saw the look on Sarah's face and was reminded that most humans just didn't DO this kind of thing - at least not nearly often enough in his opinion.  
  
"Darling, please.not here," Sarah breathed, looking up at him with pleading eyes.  
  
Jareth instantly relented. She had called him 'darling'. He was even more of a complete fool for this woman than he had thought.  
  
Jareth released Sarah from her position beneath him, but with a smile that was so wicked, she wasn't certain if she hadn't just jumped from the frying pan into the fire.  
  
He turned to the crowd with a flourish.  
  
"My queen and I thank you for coming to our wedding. Although it has been more than an honor to spend the evening among you, I think it is time my bride and I retired for the night. By all means, do stay and enjoy yourselves as long as you like!"  
  
Jareth's little speech elicited even more noise from the crowd as well as many drunkenly roared toasts to.healthy relations. Sarah found herself swept up into her husband's arms for a second time that evening as his mouth found hers for a loud and lengthy kiss.  
  
In a shimmer of stardust, they vanished. 


	14. Alone At Last

Warning: This chapter for mature audiences only. If you are uncomfortable with explicit content, please do not read this.  
  
Disclaiminer: I do not own Jareth or Sarah, but they seem to be getting along JUST FINE without me! (Tee-hee!)  
  
Chapter 14  
  
Sarah lifted her head and blinked at her surroundings. Jareth had transported both of them back to his bedroom. All her nervousness returned as he set her on her feet and looked down at her with a smile that promised a very long night indeed. He slipped off his coat and let it fall carelessly to the floor.  
  
Sarah took a step back.  
  
"Um.a glass of wine would be lovely," Sarah said. She had to stall. She wasn't ready for this - ready for HIM. She needed fortification. Pronto.  
  
Jareth looked at his queen. She seemed suddenly innocent and vulnerable, standing in her wedding dress and looking at him with those huge eyes. Her dark curls had already started to tumble loose from the bands that held them and her skin was flushed against the white of her gown. The thought that he could touch such beauty and that she was actually his for eternity was almost more wonderful than he could bear.  
  
"Of course," he said and produced a glass, filled with red liquid. Sarah wasn't really certain what she was thinking, but she inched over to where she knew the door would be, slowly sipping her wine. Her back came into contact with the wall and she felt for the door handle. Hmm. That was funny. She could have sworn there was a door here. She glanced over her shoulder surreptitiously and saw to her horror that there was no door. Nothing but stone.  
  
"I thought we could do with a bit of privacy," Jareth said silkily, taking one step toward Sarah.  
  
Looking around the room again, Sarah saw that in fact a number of things had changed. What had once been the doorway to her bedroom was now an open archway. Peering into the room beyond, Sarah could see that there wasn't even a bed in there. Instead, it appeared that the room had been converted to some sort of dressing room or study. So she would be sharing the Goblin King's bed on a full-time basis then. Oh.  
  
Oh my, oh my, oh my.  
  
Jareth continued to advance on her. Sarah's eyes grew even more enormous and she downed the rest of her wine in a single gulp. He gently pried the empty glass from her fingers and set it aside.  
  
"Shh. I won't hurt you," he whispered. Her heart beat faster at the tenderness in his words.  
  
Jareth cupped her face in his hands and lifted her chin so that they were looking directly into each other's eyes. His gaze was so intense, Sarah felt like he could see straight into her center. Jareth bent his head toward hers with agonizing slowness. His kiss was deceptively gentle. The moment he felt Sarah relax, he slid his arms around her and pulled her to him roughly. Sarah gave a surprised exclamation as his grip hardened and he lifted her onto the bed. She tried to wriggle out of his grasp to no avail.  
  
"Oh no, love. You're mine now," Jareth laughed as he tossed her onto the covers.  
  
Sarah looked up at him from her tangled position on the pillows and felt a wave of determination wash through her.  
  
"I believe that works both ways," she purred, giving him her best seductive smile.  
  
Jareth was momentarily speechless. He hadn't really thought of it that way. On second thought, he didn't mind. No, he didn't mind at all. Not that he was about to admit that to his wife.  
  
Plus it was really too much to ask that he control himself when Sarah was smiling at him like that.  
  
Without warning, he pounced.  
  
Sarah had no idea what had happened except that somehow she was now pinned underneath a seethingly passionate Goblin King. What was even stranger was that she couldn't bring herself to be all that upset about it.  
  
Jareth's fingers tangled in Sarah's hair, freeing her dark tresses from the bands that held them. He relished the cool texture against his face as he breathed in her scent. He didn't know what she smelled like - starlight? Summer? All he knew was that he needed more. He wanted to consume her until she was so much a part of him that she would always be with him.  
  
His mouth dove toward that incredibly sensitive spot in the hollow of her throat that Sarah had previously never known existed. As he started to nibble on her gently, Sarah felt her whole body shudder and tingle with the most unsettling sensations. In fact, she could do little else except arch her body against his and moan softly. Finally she couldn't take it any more and started shrieking and giggling.  
  
"Oh Jareth! No, ack!- that TICKLES!!"  
  
But it was so much more than a tickle. Her whole body crackled with energy as he increased the pressure of his nibbling ever so slightly, still holding her down to the bed. She thought she would faint. She thought she would die. If he stopped, she would kill him.  
  
Jareth had no intention of stopping. He pulled Sarah to a sitting position and then shifted behind her so that she was sitting on his lap. He threw his leg over both of hers and wrapped one strong arm around her waist and started undoing the fastenings of her dress. She groaned in protest until he found that delicious spot on her neck again. After that Sarah wasn't capable of much more than an occasional sigh of pleasure and a good deal of trembling. Finally, she wrenched herself away from his grip. Jareth was ready to yank her back, but instead of bolting across the room as he was expecting, his wife turned in his lap and leaned in to kiss him.  
  
He was at a loss. The most beautiful, heavenly creature in the entire world was twining her arms around him and crushing her mouth against his. Sarah's eyes practically glowed with mischief as she pressed her husband back into the pillows and lowered herself on top of him. Jareth had managed to loosen the fastenings on her gown, which was now riding dangerously low over her breasts and shoulders. Her dark curls formed a silken curtain around them as she claimed his lips again and started a torturously slow exploration of his mouth with her tongue. Jareth moaned, completely swept away by his need for her. That sensual nymph he had just married must be out to kill him with pleasure. Not that he was one to complain.  
  
Sarah knew only that a strange ache was sweeping through her body, settling with almost painful clarity in her nether regions. She wanted her husband. She wanted Jareth. And she could hardly believe her good luck that the man she wanted so happened to be the man laying beneath her, moaning into her mouth. Something strange and primal gripped her and she found that her fingers had somehow divested Jareth of his vest and that her hands were tearing at the buttons on his shirt without any thought to saving the fabric. The important thing seemed to be the muscular chest heaving beneath the fabric.  
  
Not one to give over the advantage, Jareth snatched Sarah to his chest and rolled her beneath him. She looked up at him with a surprised gasp, but he only chuckled and eased her gown lower, exposing the perfect white skin of her breasts and stomach. Gods but she was a gorgeous woman. The fabric of Sarah's gown wedged firmly over her arms, holding them to her sides. Jareth took advantage of the moment to feast on her nipple. As soon as she felt his mouth close over her breast, Sarah gave a cry and frantically tried to free herself from the sleeves of her gown. She had to touch him, had to bring him even closer. Jareth only grinned at her and remained decidedly unhelpful, preferring instead to explore the range of her reaction to his tongue as it flicked over that sensitive, erect little bud.  
  
He leaned back for a split second to admire the effects of his handiwork and Sarah leaped at her chance. Within an instant, she released herself of the top of her gown and slid Jareth's shirt off of his shoulders. She sucked in her breath at the sight of his chest. He was slender, but muscled. There was no mistaking the sinewy power in those shoulders and biceps. Hoo boy.  
  
Jareth only smiled at her. And removed his gloves.  
  
Slowly, he reached out and traced the curve of her jaw with his fingers.  
  
Both of their eyes flew wide in amazement at the power of the current that passed between them. Much of Jareth's magic lay in his hands and he knew that skin-on-skin contact would have some effect on whomever he touched. He simply hadn't expected to be nearly bowled over by the force flowing back at him from the woman sitting on his bed.  
  
After a moment, Sarah managed to regain enough of her senses to speak.  
  
"What was that?" she whispered, eyes still open in shock.  
  
"Mmmmph." was all Jareth managed to get out before he fell on her, sliding her gown over her hips. He relished the sight of her slender waist and long legs exposed to his view. Impatiently he tore at her lace underwear and sheer stockings. He didn't want to miss even so much as an inch of her perfect, soft skin.  
  
Sarah felt his bare hands on her thighs, unfastening her stockings and promptly lost her senses again. Whatever energy was flowing through his fingertips only served to heighten her every sensation. As the fastenings came loose in his hands, his fingers intimately trailed up and down her bare leg, moving a little higher with each stroke until her breath was coming in short gasps  
  
Once Sarah was completely naked beneath him, Jareth changed his slow strokes to cover the length of her body, worshipping the beauty he held in his hands. Just looking at her was enough to make him suck in his breath. Never had a woman had such a profound effect on him. His desire for her was so strong it bordered on violence, but his heart ached to be close to her - not just her body, but the person she was. This was the first time Jareth had ever desired .friendship.with anyone.  
  
In that moment he wanted to pleasure his wife beyond her wildest dreams. With a sly smile, he replaced his hands on her legs with his mouth. As if to memorize her every curve with his tongue, Jareth traced a line of fire up over the arch of her calf, pausing to nuzzle the hollow of her knee and then moving his lips.inch.by.inch...up the inside of her thigh.  
  
Sarah let out a startled cry as his mouth found her center. No one had ever touched her that way before. His tongue was so intimate, so warm. And then there was that strange, golden energy kept flowing from his every touch straight into her core. Her pleasure was so exquisite it was as if she were a flower opening beneath him. Whatever was building inside her was enough to make her entire body tremble violently. Already, a rosy flush covered her from head to toe and she could hear her own voice crying out, begging Jareth not to stop, begging him for.she didn't even know what. Whatever she wanted, if Jareth didn't give it to her, she was going to go completely mad.  
  
Jareth groaned into her sweetness, thrilled at the response he had elicited. He wanted to devour her until they both died of it. He reached out and clamped her wrists to her sides while he teased her mercilessly, bringing her closer and closer to the brink of ecstasy without allowing her to lose herself over the edge. A sinister chuckle was his only response as Sarah simultaneously cursed him and pleaded with him. He flicked his tongue ever so softly over her, building her torment until she was screaming with it. Her body arched up to meet him, perfectly still for a split second before the heat that had settled in the center of her body broke over her in wave after exquisite wave. Her nails raked across his shoulders as she gave herself up to the shuddering pleasure of her release.  
  
Sarah lay helplessly dazed across the sheets, still wrapped in the golden light that seemed to emanate from Jareth as he moved his hands up over her arms, pulling her into the curve of his body. Jareth was unaware that his wife had recovered until he felt an insistent pair of hands at the front of his pants, trying without much success to slide them down over his legs. Jareth simply stood and let them drop to the floor. Sarah's eyes widened noticeably as she saw her husband naked for the first time. She tried to move her mouth to speak only to find that it was already hanging open. Wreathed in candlelight he looked like some pale, perfect god.  
  
Jareth's face broke into a slow smile at her expression. The smile melted in surprise as he felt her hands wrap around his hips and pull him to her. Suddenly she rose to her knees on the bed, running her slender fingers over his hips and back. He had never known that his body could be so sensitive! Every nerve ending flamed to life as her hands skimmed over his flesh. Sarah pressed the entire length of her body to his, gazing up into his eyes intently before branding him hers with a slow, intimate kiss. He jolted as her soft hands boldly stroked him, pressing his hardness to her soft, yielding body.  
  
Jareth groaned in helpless ecstasy as her caresses became more demanding. Sarah may have had little experience, but that didn't stop her enjoyment of the power of desire that she seemed to wield over her husband. She could hardly believe that her touch made him react like THAT. She smiled to herself as she felt his whole body start to tremble.  
  
Jareth pulled away from her, knowing at any second that he would completely lose control of himself. Sarah looked up at him with anxious eyes and more than a little fear. Had she done something wrong? The look on his face had suddenly grown so.dark. Jareth had never looked quite that dangerous before and Sarah was acutely aware that she was naked in a room with a powerful sorcerer who was looking ready to do something drastic.  
  
For a moment, they both remained perfectly still, eyes locked, the only sound in the room their ragged breathing. Then with an animal snarl, Jareth engulfed Sarah in his embrace, covering her with passionate kisses. He wanted to bite her, to leave his mark on her tender skin. His hands bruised her back and hips, so tightly did her press her to him. Nothing he could do would ever bring her close enough to satisfy his need for her. Sarah responded in kind, clinging to him, tasting him everywhere with her lips and tongue. Her hands traveled the length of him, exploring every line and sinew, frantic and grasping with urgency. The compelling thread of power that had been humming between them all night erupted into a force so powerful it threatened to sweep both of them away completely.  
  
Jareth tossed Sarah onto the pillows, his arms locking her against him and moved his hardness up her thigh, closer to her womanhood. He wanted her so badly, he was actually shaking with it. There was nothing that would make him happier than to sheath himself in her and take her in one swift, rough stroke. When he heard Sarah's small cry of fear, he wrestled himself back to reason.  
  
First he counted to ten.  
  
Then Jareth looked down at his wife's anxious face and let his breath out in a long, controlled whoosh.  
  
"Love, .my beautiful Sarah, ." he breathed. Instantly, his touch gentled and he cradled his trembling, young bride against his chest.  
  
Sarah was not a virgin. Years ago, when she had still thought there might be a chance of responding to the young men that pursued her, she had tried having sex once. It had hurt. The young man she had been with hadn't been cruel, but he hadn't been gentle. She had been even more saddened by the experience when she found that she still felt nothing.  
  
Jareth looked down at Sarah with concern. Although he would never confess it to her, thanks to his crystals he was well aware of how little pleasure Sarah had experienced in her attempt at physical intimacy. He hadn't been able to bear watching her with her lover in the act, but he would never forget the sight of the tears that had streaked her face when she had finally found a safe place to cry afterwards. That wounded look hadn't left her eyes for months. He had wanted to kill the boy who had hurt her.  
  
"Sarah, look at me," he said, turning her face toward his. The sad, frightened look in her eyes was enough to break his heart.  
  
"You have my word. I won't harm you," he murmured gently. After a moment of simply holding her close, he lifted himself up and moved so that he was once again resting against her. Her hesitancy had done nothing to dampen his desire, but he was determined to make this night one she would remember with pleasure. He pressed himself further towards her center, feeling her tense at his touch. Instead of easing the pressure, he leaned down and kissed her softly, gentle hands running over her body, twining in her hair.  
  
"Trust me." he whispered.  
  
Sarah shivered as his warm breath played across her ear. With an aching slowness, she felt herself opening to him, taking him in. She gave a little moan and Jareth slanted his lips over hers, easing her pain with the sweetness of his mouth. As if she had been lost in a desert for weeks, Sarah drank him in, relishing the sweet warmth of his tongue caressing her. Bit by bit, her body yielded to him, her softness closing around him like a glove.  
  
Jareth felt Sarah's surrender and nearly lost his mind again. That glorious little minx was almost more than he could handle. He gripped himself with a steely self-control and started to move inside her, gently, teasingly. Sarah whimpered under him, the pain of penetration giving away to something else altogether. Jareth ran his hands up and down her curves, pressing himself more tightly to her. Tenderly he increased the tempo of his strokes, his tongue and hands bringing Sarah's body to rippling life.  
  
Sarah started to respond, writhing beneath her husband and tangling her limbs around him. Soon, she was moving with him, her hips catching his rhythm as the two of them sealed their bond in the most ancient ritual of all. Never in her wildest dreams had she expected to feel such a delight, such a closeness. Only minutes ago, Jareth had been her adversary - her husband as well, but still someone she had little reason to trust. In that moment, she felt such a connection it was as if his heartbeat sang in her own blood. Unable to help herself, Sarah moaned his name and smiled up into his eyes.  
  
The smile undid Jareth. He drove himself into Sarah with an urgency born of thousands of years of loneliness. He had never known how truly alone he'd been until she had come to the Underground. Closeness was new for him. Hell, love was new for him and he knew now how frighteningly deep his love was for the woman who lay in his arms. And ah, gods, she was finally his. He cradled Sarah close, crushing her breasts to his chest as his lips found hers.  
  
The pleasure building between them was racing toward a peak and Jareth knew he wouldn't be able to hold himself back long. Sarah, who had been twisting and bucking beneath him, suddenly went taunt and still. In an instant she was screaming her release and he finally let himself go, nearly drowning in the exquisite sensations that broke over his body. His voice felt hoarse as he whispered her name and then he realized that he too had been crying out. He collapsed, shuddering with bliss.  
  
When Jareth was able to move again, he curved his body around his wife, enveloping her with his warmth. What he had experienced with her was beyond words and he felt somehow humbled by it. Before she had entered his world, he had always been the one in control, pleasuring himself with his partners but maintaining some distance from them. He had never needed anyone before. He knew in that moment that he never wanted to imagine life without Sarah ever again. How he had lived so long without her in the first place was beyond him.  
  
Her heartbeat finally slowing to a manageable thunder, Sarah crept back to the world of clear thought. Jareth was holding her protectively, possessively. She had no idea if she was in heaven or hell, but she was certain of one thing: she was completely confused. Making love to Jareth had left her feeling.well, happy. HAPPY?! He was supposed to be cruel, wasn't he? She had expected him to be rough with her - at the very least to gloat that he finally had her in his power and could take his revenge on her for defeating him by using her as he saw fit. Instead, she had found herself in the arms of a man who had gone out of his way not to hurt her. Well, that wasn't entirely accurate. Actually, she had found herself in the arms of a man who seemed hell-bent on living up to her wildest dreams.  
  
She started as one slender, ungloved hand stroked lightly through her tangled hair. What was that weird sparking sensation she got every time he touched her? It wasn't unpleasant, rather quite the opposite really, but Sarah still found it unnerving. It felt like.when he touched her, he was somehow touching more than just her skin or her hair. She felt like he was touching her, somehow reaching into - what? Her essence? To say that he was touching her soul sounded cheesy even to Sarah, but she couldn't quite shake the feeling that putting it that way might actually be closest to the truth.  
  
Sarah couldn't resist snuggling closer and Jareth felt his heart leap for joy as she pressed herself to him. All in all, the events of the day had given him a great deal of hope for their future together. He wasn't quite ready to let Sarah know how powerfully she affected him, but he thought her feelings for him might be growing.  
  
Jareth slid one leg over both of hers and tightened his arms around his now sleeping queen. The power he felt flowing from her body settled over him like a golden haze. Ah yes. She was as powerful as he was. He found that thought disturbing. No one in his entire kingdom had ever had power equal to his own. How his young, beautiful bride had managed to acquire it was a mystery he was determined to solve as well. He would have to do some .research in the morning. But that would be the morning. For now, he was content to hold the woman of his dreams as if he would never let her go.  
  
He smiled at that. Of course he would never let her go. 


	15. Promises, Promises

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or nifty crystal balls from "Labyrinth".  
  
Chapter 15  
  
Sarah's eyes flew open in alarm. Where was she? Why couldn't she move?  
  
Her panic attack subsided as she recognized the drapery hanging above her head as that on the Goblin King's bed and realized that she was immobile because said king was lying partially on top of her, snoring up a storm.  
  
So this was married life.  
  
Maybe if she eased just a little to the left.  
  
The snoring stopped abruptly.  
  
Hallelujah.  
  
Sarah eased further toward the edge of the bed and was brought to an abrupt halt by a pair of sinewy arms.  
  
"But darling, we were only just getting started." murmured the Goblin King, nuzzling Sarah's neck.  
  
Instantly, Sarah felt weak in the knees and very, very warm. With a great and valiant effort, she remained capable of rational thought. And boy did she need to think.  
  
Sarah turned toward her (gulp) husband with what she hoped was a promising smile.  
  
"I just need a moment for.well, you know." Somehow she managed to sound apologetic instead of desperate.  
  
"Ah.of course," Jareth clucked, all understanding.  
  
Sarah was just stepping out of bed when she realized that she didn't have a robe. Crud. She knew she was married to Jareth. She knew they had just spent the entire night buck- naked together. She knew that they would probably be spending every night in a similar condition for the rest of their lives. And yet, somehow with the sunlight streaming into every corner of the room, she felt shy.  
  
Hoping against hope, she tried gently to tug the sheet away from him and wrap it around her body. He smiled at her wickedly and kept a firm grip on the bedding.  
  
"Why Sarah! I should have known you'd be a cover stealer!" he laughed, maintaining his hold on the blankets as she tried again to yank them away from him. He enveloped her in his arms and pulled her so close she could feel every inch of his skin glued against her body.  
  
"Whatever shall we do with you?" he murmured huskily, lips already searching for hers.  
  
On cue, she blushed. Nuts.  
  
"Um.it's a little chilly." she muttered, unable to meet her husband's eyes as she tried to disentangle herself from his embrace.  
  
"And that should make the view all the more enjoyable!" he crowed, eyes glowing with anticipation.  
  
Sarah grit her teeth. Okay so it would be a long, naked, freezing, thoroughly witnessed walk to the bathroom then.  
  
Seeing her obvious distress, Jareth took pity on her. He really couldn't deny her anything.  
  
"Fine, fine. No lovely morning vistas for me today," he sighed, conjuring his robe from thin air and tossing it to his wife.  
  
Gratefully she snatched the robe and wrapped it around her as far as it would go (which was nearly twice). She wasn't certain if she should bolt for the bathroom or the door. Glancing over to the solid wall of stonework where the exit should have been she remembered that there wasn't a door anymore. Damn that Jareth. He really did think of everything. With a small sigh of resignation, she trotted off to where she hoped the loo still existed.  
  
As soon as she was alone, Sarah's brain started to work overtime. In only three days she had married her worst enemy, changed her species, been gifted with near-immortality, and was now an active and significant part of the government of a foreign nation. Her family had to be worried sick about her. But she could go to the Aboveworld and see them today, right? Speaking of a visit, what the heck was she going to tell them? "Oh hi. Yeah, I was kidnapped by a Goblin King who forced me to become his bride if I ever wanted to see you again and now I'm immortal and a queen." That sounded splendid. Her family would completely understand why she had disappeared for days and failed to write or call.  
  
She wondered if Jareth would allow her to visit her family alone or if he would insist on accompanying her. That could get.weird. If he did come with her (and this was even weirder) Sarah wanted her family to accept him as her husband and try to make him welcome. She was still unsettled about the circumstances of her marriage, but she was also a practical person. Eternity was eternity. It simply wouldn't do to have her family at odds with her spouse. Maybe she could get him to wear jeans or something - just for a day or two. She could only imagine what her father's reaction might be to the leather/tights/glitter combination. Oh god.  
  
Almost as important was the matter of figuring out how she was going to teach herself about magic. Jareth had studiously avoided answering any of her questions about the strange experiences she'd been having. She wasn't certain about what he might be hiding, but it frightened her a little.  
  
The more she thought about it the more certain she became that the reason Jareth's crystal had shattered two nights ago because she had wanted it to. At the time she had thought he was going to do something terrible to her and so her desire to stop whatever awful spell he was planning had been pretty darn strong. So strong that it seemed to slip outside of her control - slip outside of HER. Even remembering the force that had seemed to rip itself out of her body was exhausting - and exhilarating.  
  
Sarah had to smile to herself at that. If nothing else, she doubted her marriage would be dull. Maybe she should try changing Jareth back into a bunnyrabbit.  
  
Speaking of her husband, she didn't want him to get suspicious. Reluctantly, Sarah left the bathroom and padded back to the bed.  
  
He was gone.  
  
"Jareth?"  
  
No answer.  
  
Oddly, Sarah felt a little hurt.  
  
She started to shuffle dejectedly toward the study when without warning, she felt herself swept off of her feet and straight into a pair of powerful arms.  
  
"So lovely to have you back," Jareth murmured before covering her mouth with his.  
  
"Mmmmph!" she squeaked, twisting against him. Within seconds her robe was lying in a heap on the floor and Sarah found herself once again captive in Jareth's embrace. She thought she should protest -at least until plans were set for her to visit her family. Well, nuts. Would wrapping her arms around her husband and returning his kisses with enthusiasm qualify as sufficient resistance?  
  
Details. Pah.  
  
Jareth spent the next several hours garnering his own impression of married life. If the first day was any indication, he expected to spend the rest of eternity floating in a shimmering haze of lust and pleasant exhaustion.  
  
Several hours later, the lovers lay spent across the bed, Jareth lightly caressing Sarah's back.  
  
"Jareth?"  
  
"Mmmm?"  
  
"I'm going to see my family today, right?"  
  
Crap. He had planned today for Sarah's coronation. Invitations had been issued and all the nobles from the Underground were to be in attendance. He could always postpone it, but that might cause a war. Temperamental. That was Fae nobility for you. But if he told Sarah no.  
  
Racking his brains, he tried to stall.  
  
"Well, darling.you won't be able to see them right away."  
  
Sarah felt her whole body turn to ice. He had betrayed her.  
  
"WHY NOT?"  
  
"We didn't get to discuss everything that's involved in being my queen. Sarah, today is your coronation. I cannot postpone it and yes, you absolutely MUST be there." Even if I have to gag you and chain you to the throne, he thought.  
  
"Jareth, you gave me your word that I could see my family as soon as we were married."  
  
"No, Sarah, I didn't. I told you that you could visit them AFTER we were married. I never said exactly when."  
  
He knew he was being a jerk. He also knew he didn't have a choice.  
  
Sarah was so angry that she couldn't even cry. This was too cruel - even for Jareth. Without another word, she stood up from the bed, now uncaring about her nakedness and strode from the room.  
  
It wasn't fair but that was simply how it was.  
  
Fine.  
  
She would just have to do this herself.  
  
Jareth stared after her, knowing he was in for some serious trouble. WHY, when everything was going so splendidly, did something stupid (like a critical function of governing a nation for example) have to go and screw it up? He had already scheduled Whimsyn to prepare Sarah for the coronation ceremony, but now thought that perhaps he should sit in on the preparations himself. He couldn't risk his young queen doing something rash - like running away - right before she was expected to appear before all of the most powerful figures in the Underground. Now that Sarah was bound to him as his wife, he could find her anywhere she might run simply by listening for her heartbeat in his own blood. But now that she was his wife, she could RUN because the spell that had been holding her as his captive was no longer in effect. She was no longer mortal.  
  
No, he really didn't dare leave her side while she was in a temper like that.  
  
Frantically, Jareth tried to think of some way to placate his wife. He was a little slow at it since he had never cared to appease anyone before. Everyone had always bent over backwards to appease HIM. Goblins balls! What was he supposed to do?  
  
After a moment, he followed Sarah into the study. He found her standing in front of a plain, stone wall that had once been the French doors leading to the balcony that she had tried to use as an escape two nights ago. Yes, he did think of everything and thank the gods for that. Sarah didn't turn to face him, but he could see her shoulders shaking. It physically pained him to see her crying like that.  
  
"Sarah - "  
  
"Go away."  
  
"No."  
  
She turned to face him and the sight of her nearly took his breath away. Sarah was still naked, hair tangled, face tearstained. Her beauty hit him like a physical blow, but it was more than that. For that one second her guard was down and he saw the woman within - proud, frightened, strong - and deeply, deeply hurt. Jareth had braced himself for her rage, not this gut-wrenching, heart-stopping pain. Knowing he was the cause was almost more than he could stand.  
  
"Sarah - "  
  
"Jareth, just go."  
  
"Please hear me out!"  
  
Her eyes widened in surprise. She had never heard Jareth say 'please' before.  
  
"Sarah, I should have told you about the coronation. The ceremony must be completed today. To postpone it would be such an insult to the nobles attending that I would risk a war. I will not thrust my kingdom - OUR kingdom - into such a position. You have my oath as your husband that we will visit your family as soon as the festivities are finished."  
  
"And exactly how long are these 'festivities'?"  
  
"Three days or so."  
  
Sarah couldn't rip the image of Toby's worried face from her mind.  
  
"THREE DAYS?!"  
  
Jareth was getting so frustrated that he wanted to zap something into oblivion.  
  
"I gave you my word that you could visit them and you will - AFTER your duties to our kingdom are complete."  
  
"And what if I refuse to take part in these 'duties'? You promised to let me see my family after I became your wife. I've held up my end of the bargain and you have yet to deliver on yours."  
  
Sarah knew she was walking on landmines and really, she would never deliberately send the kingdom to war. After all, her friends lived there and she had no intention of putting them in danger. But she had to have SOME kind of leverage in this situation. What little trust she had in Jareth had just been badly shaken. Was he really going to let her see her family or had the whole thing just been an elaborate lie so that he could have her under his power - in every way?  
  
"My dear.I do not think refusal is among your options," Jareth hissed, stalking toward her in a manner that made her turn a little pale. She put up her hands to ward him off, but Jareth grabbed her wrists and held them in his steel grip.  
  
His hold was painful, but Sarah didn't struggle. She looked him straight in the eye and made a decision.  
  
"Jareth, I will take part in the coronation. No matter what you seem to think, I am not such a spoiled brat that I would start a war just to make a point." Her voice was quiet, but her eyes held something sad and unsettling.  
  
With that Sarah had said her piece and simply stared at him for a moment, but Jareth didn't release his hold on her. When she tried to tug her way free, he only tightened his fingers around her wrists.  
  
"No, you're not running from me. I have something to say to you. Sarah, I gave you my word that you would see your family and you shall," he said softly. "I made a grave error in not telling you about the coronation ceremony. My dear, I'm certain you must think only the worst of me as your husband at this point, but I would like to prove otherwise. Write them a letter and I will see that they receive it today. Tell them that you will be coming to see them in three days' time accompanied by your husband."  
  
A-aaallrighty then. So he would be coming with her after all.  
  
"To prove that I am keeping my word to you, I will even give you a crystal so that you can watch as they open the letter."  
  
Sarah swallowed.  
  
"How much time do I have before I need to prepare for the ceremony?"  
  
"No more than an hour. You should eat something."  
  
He relaxed his death grip on her and stroked her hair back from her face.  
  
Sarah was oddly touched by his concern. She was also trying to think of some convincing story she could give her family that would explain a week- long disappearance without a phone call and the startling addition of a new husband in tights and glitter. At a loss, she turned to the only person she thought could help her.  
  
"Jareth, what on earth am I going to say in that letter?"  
  
"Just what I told you. Is there anything wrong with that?"  
  
"Look.let's talk about this over breakfast. Do you have paper and a pen or something around here?"  
  
Five minutes later the newlyweds were ensconced back in the bed, munching on crumpets and pouring over a mostly blank sheet of paper with several blotches on it since Sarah was somewhat inexperienced with using a quill. When he had kidnapped Sarah, Jareth had never expected to get her to agree to marry him while her family was still alive to hear about it. This unplanned- for contingency was starting to get a little messy.  
  
"Could we say I rescued you from.from .a dragon?"  
  
Sarah gave him a withering look.  
  
"Okay, okay. Just kidding. I know! I rescued you from a band of thieves who had kidnapped you and were about to kill you because they discovered that you had no money."  
  
Sarah snorted in disgust.  
  
"Why are YOU always rescuing ME? I think it makes more sense to say that I was called away in the middle of the night to say goodbye to a friend on her deathbed and you.were her cousin.yeah."  
  
It was Jareth's turn to snort.  
  
"Where would you have been 'called to' that didn't have a telephone? I think we should stick with me rescuing you from something. It's much more romantic."  
  
Sarah burst into laughter. She wasn't certain where abducting her and then feeding her cheese dogs fit on the romance scale, but it was decidedly suspect.  
  
"Okay. A friend calls me in the middle of the night with an emergency and when I head over there.I trip and hit my head?" Sarah thought a bump on the head might be her only safe explanation for marrying someone as .ah.unusual as Jareth would appear to be in the Aboveworld.  
  
"Okay. I find you - but why haven't I rushed you to a hospital?"  
  
Damn. A hole in her story already.  
  
"Umm - you didn't know there was anything wrong with me at first. You saw that I had a nasty bruise and.and."  
  
"You were lost."  
  
"Right!"  
  
"And when I took you home with me to get you out of the rain."  
  
"I got a bad fever!"  
  
"Right.so I took care of you, but you kept getting worse so."  
  
"You called a priest and told him that you wanted him to marry us in case I died so that I wouldn't die a sinner because we had already slept together!"  
  
That whole concept was foreign to Jareth, but he nodded anyway, deciding to trust his wife on this point when it came to Aboveground society.  
  
"And by the time you had recovered, your memory had returned."  
  
"But we had also fallen in love so we decided to stay married!"  
  
Jareth practically burst with joy when he thought of Sarah actually falling in love with him. He didn't think she loved him yet, but he planned to do everything in his power to encourage her feelings.  
  
Sarah thought the whole thing was pretty far-fetched and probably full of holes, but it was the best she could come up with on such short notice. Smiling, she penned a clean copy of the letter and passed it to her husband.  
  
Jareth folded it into a charming paper airplane and sent it straight into the fire in the hearth.  
  
Sarah was preparing to fold HIM into a tiny little airplane pilot and send him to the same place when he produced a crystal and presented it to her with a flourish.  
  
Inside, Sarah saw her brother Toby pick up the mail from the box.and then drop the mail on the lawn.and head toward the house in a dead run clutching a crumpled envelope in his fist. He reached the door screaming "MOM! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!"  
  
"Toby! Are you alright, sweetheart?" Karen came running.  
  
Toby couldn't even speak, but held the envelope out to Karen. In a second Karen was screaming "RICHARD! RIIIIIIIIIIICHAAAAAAAAAAARD!!"  
  
Sarah's father came running and the little family huddled around the envelope as Karen ripped it open. Sarah's family stared at the letter with worried frowns as they read through it several times.  
  
"Richard, do you think this is real?"  
  
"It's very strange that she hasn't called. This guy she's supposedly married to - why wouldn't he have a phone? Or help Sarah get to a phone so that she could call us and tell us she was safe? I'm calling the police."  
  
Crud. That wasn't what Sarah had been hoping to accomplish. Now they were more worried and suspicious than ever. She looked over at Jareth who appeared to be in deep thought.  
  
"Sarah, we don't use telephones here."  
  
Well duh.  
  
".but .perhaps a voice spell? On the telephone in your world.Yes! All right, I'm going to give you this crystal and I want you to speak into it. Tell me when it sounds like a voice over a telephone."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You know! Like what you hear from someone when you answer the telephone. It's not like having a person in the same room with you is it?"  
  
"No, not really."  
  
"All right then."  
  
Sarah felt beyond silly holding some glowing crystal and saying 'test, test' over and over again. It reminded her of doing sound checks in the theater and she got completely homesick.  
  
After a few minutes, they had the sound right.  
  
"My love, prepare to call your parents and explain everything."  
  
Fabulous. She couldn't have been more confident.  
  
She heard her parents' phone ring in Jareth's other crystal and was soon saying "Dad? Karen? Hi!" She explained her disappearance just as she had in the letter with a few added details about how Jareth's phone had been out, she hadn't been carrying ID on her, he didn't know what number to call and thought her family might freak out if he called them instead of her, etc. Sarah knew the story was wobbly at best, but they seemed to buy it now that she was actually speaking the words herself. Ahhh. Years of theater training. She could sell any script by now.  
  
Jareth was so proud of his wife he thought he might float through the air with a silly grin on his face. He became especially intrigued with the conversation when Sarah's parents started asking her about him and their sudden marriage. The girl practically gushed into the crystal "phone" about how happy she was, how he was utterly gorgeous, kind, witty, and generally everything she had ever dreamed of in a man.  
  
Sarah supposed she was laying it on a little thick, but how else was she to explain something that would otherwise be completely out of character for her? She hadn't even DATED a man in four years. Sheesh.  
  
Finally the conversation drew to a close with Sarah's repeated promise to visit in three days' time. Her family kept pressing her for details on where she was, but she only said she needed a little more time to feel like 'herself' again after that bump on the head and her extended illness. Hell, she needed at least that much time to give her husband a makeover so that her parents wouldn't pack him off to Vegas when they saw him.  
  
Just then, a sharp wrapping on the wall/door/whatever reminded them that the coronation ceremony wouldn't wait. Hundreds of nobles were gathered and Whimsyn called through the door that he had JUST the shoes to make Sarah's new golden gown look positively FLAWLESS.  
  
With a mutual sigh, the newlyweds figured that being 'flawless' wasn't such a bad way to face all of fae society. Hopefully Whimsyn had coffee. 


	16. Caught!

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from "Labyrinth". I guess I own the apple juice at least for a little while because I drank it. : )  
  
Chapter 16  
  
Sarah's coronation passed in a blur of parties, ceremonies, and enormous dinners. Jareth was at her side every minute offering support and guidance. He was also the ultimate Cliff Notes on fae nobility. The sound of his voice in her ear whispering the names of the nobles she didn't know and reminding her of the proper greeting for each was the best gift she could have asked for.  
  
Sarah had known that her chosen career path in the Aboveworld might have led to a brush with fame eventually if she was lucky; but she had never dreamed of what it would really be like to be stared at by everyone and have her life picked apart down to the tiniest detail of the buttons on her dress to who she said hello to and what she had for dinner by an entire society. She vowed that if she ever made it home to see her family, she would send Julia Roberts an enormous sympathy bouquet. Jareth (blast him) took everything in stride and made it all look so easy. Sarah had never expected to be so jealous of her husband! Couldn't there be just one, teeny, tiny thing that he was just a little bit unsure of?  
  
As she laughed with strangers and racked her brains for etiquette and protocol, she couldn't help but be struck how beautiful her new home was, even if it did come with an enormous amount of responsibility. Every ball or dinner seemed like a magical circus event with performers and fountains and fireworks - and every manner of strange creature seemed to appear there. It was damnably difficult to determine which ones were pets, which servants, and which royals. Jareth had to stop Sarah more than once as she was preparing a formal address for beings that were actually the Underground equivalent of an Aboveworld poodle or pet parakeet.  
  
After the first day of misaddressing parakeets, Sarah tumbled into bed exhausted. As she felt the Goblin King's arms close around her and his soft snores begin, her body was screaming for sleep but her mind refused to listen. Through all of the endless pomp and mingling she hadn't been able to completely draw her thoughts away from her upcoming trip home. She hadn't had the opportunity to discuss the visit with Jareth yet and was praying that he wouldn't be as stubborn as he usually was.  
  
When an hour later, Sarah was still staring at the ceiling with her eyes wide open, she decided that the least she could do was put the few hours she had to herself to good use. She couldn't ease her worries about visiting her family while Jareth was sleeping but she COULD start on her studies about magic. In fact, her studying was probably best pursued while her husband was in dreamland. Easing slowly out of the bed, she grabbed Jareth's robe (for some strange reason he had yet to provide her with a robe of her own), picked up a candle and slipped out the door that Jareth (after much convincing) had finally agreed to put back into the wall. Given that she was now sneaking out to find Jareth's library and learn a little magic of her own, she supposed he had a right to be somewhat paranoid.  
  
Silently she slipped into the corridor outside. Which way was that dratted library? Sarah had spent so much time performing her various duties as queen that she hadn't had much time for exploring since her afternoon with Hoggle. She paused for a moment considering - right, left, or straight? Thinking the right hallway looked somewhat familiar, Sarah started down it, trying to feel confident; but as she continued, she became less certain of her choice. The shadows on the walls seemed to take on a life of their own, growing deeper and deeper until the frail light of Sarah's candle was barely bright enough for her to see where she was going. She saw another hallway on the right - was that the way?  
  
Her heart in her mouth, she started down the passage only to stop abruptly. What was that noise? She thought she heard a faint scurrying and cackling just a little further on ahead. It sounded like.GOBLINS! Sarah wasn't certain if she should be afraid or not. Technically, she WAS the new Goblin Queen, but she had yet to encounter any of Jareth's goblins on her own. She felt something furry run over her foot and gave a little squeak of alarm. That had better have been a goblin because if it was really a rat, she was going to completely freak out.  
  
"Who's there?" she called, praying to every god she could think of that some random servant would pop around the corner and say 'It is only I, my lady' or some such nonsense. Instead, she heard faint snickerings and laughter and then a low, ominous growl. That growl sounded like it was coming from something that hadn't had anything to eat in a long, long time. That growl had also sounded awfully close.  
  
Like any sane woman, Sarah obeyed her instincts and turned around and started running. She knew this was probably not the best first impression to leave on her new minions; but if that thing back there was a rat instead of a goblin, or one very large, hungry goblin instead of a rat, she was taking no chances. Sadly, running proved to be a mistake. The breeze from her flight proved to be just enough to blow out her candle. Sarah was forced to stop running so that she wouldn't smack into any walls, but the pitch darkness didn't seem to be an obstacle for whatever was chasing her. If the noise was any indication, whatever it was seemed to be gaining.  
  
Fighting her rising panic Sarah stumbled ahead blindly, trying to feel for any obstacles in front of her with her hands. The scratching and scurrying kept getting closer and closer. Sara bit back her frightened sobs as she plunged onward into the blackness ahead. Suddenly she slammed into something solid. Rather SOMEONE solid. Someone who held her fast in spite of all of her struggles and screams. Strong arms yanked her close and a gloved hand closed over her mouth.  
  
"Sarah, love, it's only me."  
  
Jareth.  
  
Instantly she stopped fighting and sagged against him in relief. The scurrying noises behind her ceased abruptly as she rested her head on his shoulder. To her great irritation, she was still sobbing.  
  
"Darling, what happened? And what on earth are you doing out of bed?"  
  
Ah yes. She'd have to explain that one somehow.  
  
Thinking quickly, Sarah gasped, "I couldn't sleep and.and.I was thirsty. I had this weird craving for.um.apple juice. I went looking for the kitchens and I got lost. My candle went out and there were these strange noises - something seemed to be following me!"  
  
"Shhh.my dearest, I would never allow any harm to come to you. You must believe that."  
  
Jareth pulled her even more tightly against him and rocked her in his arms. After a moment her tears subsided. Oddly, she found that she was clinging to him.  
  
"What you heard was just my goblins. They love to play games with anyone up and about. You have to take them firmly in hand - show them who's boss," he chuckled. "They probably didn't know it was you."  
  
"Oh," Sarah said in a very small voice. Goodie. Her first day as Queen and she had already make an idiot of herself.  
  
"And Sarah, if you want anything at all, just wake me and ask. There are a few advantages to being my queen you know." And the woman I love, he added to himself, though he certainly wasn't ready to share that piece of news with her yet.  
  
Jareth still had the nagging suspicion that his wife wasn't telling him the whole truth about why she was up and wandering about in the middle of the night, but he decided to let it go just this once. Perhaps he should remove the door from their chambers again? No. He was too curious to learn what she was really up to. Whatever it was, his lovely bride would try again - that is if he knew his Sarah. In moments, he had conjured a light spell, produced a goblet of apple juice and was escorting Sarah safely back to their room.  
  
Sarah looked up at him with a mixture of gratitude and suspicion. He had seemed to believe her reasons for being awake and out of bed readily enough. Perhaps she could go even further?  
  
"Jareth, there is one thing I did want to ask you for."  
  
"Yes, love?"  
  
"I really do love to read. I was wondering if you would mind if I borrowed a book from your library now and then?"  
  
"My dear, it's our library now. Of course not."  
  
"Oh! Good.Will I be able to read many of them though?"  
  
"What? Oh, of course! I'll manage a translation spell in the morning so you can read any books you like. Is there anything you would like to read tonight?"  
  
"Actually, I think all of the excitement I got myself into has worn me out. I'll definitely take you up on your offer tomorrow though. Thank you, Jareth."  
  
With a smile, he lifted his already nodding wife into his arms and tucked her snugly under the covers. He could hardly wait to find out just what she was up to.  
  
The next day, Sarah's concentration was suffering as she endured the endless stream of nobles and well-wishers who kept pressing around her. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were bright so she looked plenty alert and alive, but her mind was already in Jareth's library, delving through every tome on magic that she could find.  
  
She had started to notice the immense forces of magic that seemed to permeate every aspect of life in the Underground. She could see guests performing various spells all over the assembly hall. She was able identify the conjuring magics easily enough since a spell was pretty obvious if someone pulled something from midair that wouldn't usually have been there - like a glass of water or a doughnut. But other things.she could see the gestures and hear a casually muttered incantation once in awhile with no noticeable change, but she felt certain that some kind of spell had just gone off. There always seemed to be some kind of prickle in the air anytime magic was put into play.  
  
That night, she curled against Jareth, grateful that he seemed to think she would be too tired for his attentions while the coronation festivities were occupying their days. Actually, she had so much adrenaline pumping through her system, she doubted she would manage sleep even if she knew her life depended on it. She waited until the king's breathing had been deep and even for some time before she lightly slid from the bed, grabbed the robe and candle and made a beeline for the library. She'd been smarter about it this time and made good and certain that her husband showed her the correct path to both the library (and the kitchens so that her story would look less suspicious) before they'd attended the morning banquet.  
  
Sarah padded out the door and down the hall as quickly as she could while remaining silent. She wasn't certain how much time she would have before Jareth caught her - if he did. She decided to tell him the truth if he ended up finding her. Well, sort of the truth. She would tell him that she had once again had trouble sleeping and had gone looking for a book to pass the time.  
  
Finally, she reached the double doors of the library and gently pushed them open. Once inside, she almost gave up hope right there. The library was enormous and the light from her candle was fragile at best. How would she ever manage to see her way around, let alone find the particular books she was looking for? She shuffled inside, closing the door behind her. She wasn't ready to give up hope yet.  
  
She remembered the cabinet that Jareth had pointed out as the library's organization system. It wasn't exactly like one of those antiquated card catalogues she remembered from when she was a little girl, but it was close enough. Sarah opened the low wooden doors of the cabinet to reveal a series of notebooks labeled like an encyclopedia. With any luck, she would find the books she was looking for under "M". After a few minutes of searching, she came up with "Magic: a Brief History" listed at over 3000 pages and "Magic Users: Sorcerers Through the Ages". Not really what she was looking for. Surely Jareth didn't keep books on spells locked up somewhere else? To the best of her knowledge, the goblins couldn't read and everyone else already knew how to use magic so there wasn't much of a point in hiding books about spell-casting now was there? What if she looked for certain kinds of magic instead?  
  
The first kind of spell that came to Sarah's mind was conjuring since A. it would be obvious if she had performed the spell correctly and B. light spells were probably conjuring spells and she could sure use some light about now. She thumbed through the cabinet some more, until she located the tome that would list any resources about conjuring that might be available.  
  
Sarah was so intent on what she was doing that she never saw the library door open and close, making only a whisper of noise against the thick carpet.  
  
After a minute, she located the reference numbers for several books on conjuring. Great. Now all she had to do was figure out where those books were located in this monolithic library. For once, luck was on her side and she found the books she was looking for within fifteen minutes of patient searching: "A Rabbit, A Pound Cake, A Hat", "Creative Conjuring: 2000 Recipes", "The Power of the Word: Conjuring Out of Thin Air". Sarah didn't need a rabbit, a pound cake, or a hat nor did she have any ingredients for anything on hand. (In fact she felt a little stupid that she hadn't thought of that in the first place.) However, thin air seemed to be present in abundance, so she settled on the third book and skimmed the contents for light spells.  
  
She saw three different light spells listed, but the text didn't explain how any of them might be different from one another. Shrugging her shoulders, she looked over the words for the first one. Was she supposed to hold her hands in a special way as she said them? Jareth always seemed to do everything with a graceful flick of the wrist. Okay. Fine. She would just pretend to be him.  
  
Sarah read over the instructions and tried to concentrate. Her heart was pounding. She could do this. Hell, she had to do this. Her candle had burnt so low it could go out any second. She whispered the words to herself and practiced Jareth's wrist flick. As she was preparing to stand tall and deliver the spell for the first time, a shower of sparking light burst over her. So whispering worked as well as shouting then. She would have to remember that.  
  
Sarah stood gawking in amazement at what she had done. WOW! SHE had done THAT. A slow smile broke over her face as she stared up at the sparking light. She didn't sense the presence behind her until it was too late. A pair of arms closed roughly around her and a voice growled low in her ear.  
  
"No wonder you're having trouble sleeping. Perhaps if we shut out some of this light, you'll find it easier to stay in bed."  
  
The next thing she knew, she felt a scarf drawn over her eyes and tied tightly.  
  
Damn, damn, damn.  
  
"Jareth.I.was only."  
  
"Only what? Sneaking around at night with your 'insomnia'? Looking for something to keep you amused? My dear, if amusement is what you crave, I can think of several activities to occupy your time."  
  
Sarah felt Jareth's hand trace the curve of her waist and hip as he held her in place with one arm. His meaning was unmistakable.  
  
"Jareth."  
  
Sarah lifted her hands blindly to ward him off, but he easily caught them and held them together before she could tear off the blindfold.  
  
"I'm certain we can cure your sleeplessness, love," he murmured with a sinister chuckle. "To bed with you then."  
  
Sarah felt a rush of air and then Jareth's body pressed against hers as he eased her down on what had to be their bed. She reached up in a second attempt to tug the scarf away from her eyes, but he stopped her again by twining his fingers with hers and pressing her hands into the pillows above her head.  
  
"Oh no, Sarah mine. Lying to your sovereign will not go unpunished."  
  
Crap. She should have picked up the book about pound cakes. If she turned her husband into pastry, she might be able to get out of this. 


	17. Punishment

Warning: This chapter is not as explicit as Chapter 14, but it still has a bit of fun thrown in. If you are allergic to the kind of fun Jareth and Sarah are wont to indulge in (or just plain too young), don't read it.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these people. They are free citizens of the Underground (although Jim Henson may beg to differ).  
  
Chapter 17  
  
Jareth felt Sarah slip from the bed, waited five minutes and then followed her to the place he knew she would be. His wife had been lying to him last night and he was determined to find out why. When he reached the library, he cloaked himself with an invisibility spell and slid between the doors as silently as he could. His eyes found her quickly, hunched in the corner, pouring over his reference cabinet. She looked so small and lovely in the candlelight, and also so determined. What in seven hells was that little minx doing?  
  
Jareth's vigil was finally rewarded when he saw her set off the light spell. Dear god, she had really pulled it off - without even so much as a stitch of training and hardly any concentration from the looks of her while she had been whispering the words. At least she looked as surprised as he felt. He knew his wife had considerable power at her disposal but never dreamed that she would be so quick to learn to use it. Well, what had he been thinking? He had married SARAH after all - not some random, silly little sprite. Once again, WHAT had he been THINKING? And why, oh why, did he have to be so utterly in love with his wife?  
  
The idea of allowing her to have the upper hand was unthinkable. She might be his queen and he might have been fool enough to allow her protection from the worst of his spells by giving her that ring, but he was still King of the Underground. He wouldn't need magic to teach her a lesson about the consequences of lying to him.  
  
Jareth watched her glowing features light up in a smile as he crept closer. Even though he still was invisible, Sarah could have heard his approach had she been listening, but she was far too absorbed in setting off her first spell to notice him. He was able to wrap his arms around his beautiful wife and blindfold her before she even thought to fight him. She was so frightened he almost felt sorry for her - almost.  
  
Without ceremony, he transported both of them to their chambers and pressed her squirming body onto the bed. Oh yes, he was going to enjoy this. Now where should he begin?  
  
"Jareth! Let me go! I haven't done anything wrong!"  
  
"Oh REALLY?"  
  
So much sarcasm dripped from Jareth's tone that it would have splashed all over Sarah if that had actually been possible.  
  
"I suppose telling your husband half-truths about your nighttime wanderings is perfectly innocent? What exactly were you intending to do, my sweet? Teach yourself enough magic to escape from me?"  
  
Sarah gulped. The all-powerful sorcerer who had blindfolded her and was now holding her down to the bed was hitting a little too close to home. Not that she was scared or anything.  
  
"Now, darling, let's be reasonable," Sarah said, trying to adopt the most cajoling tone she could muster.  
  
Jareth swore to himself. She was calling him 'darling' again. Dammit.  
  
"We both know I could never leave you now that we're married - " Sarah's voice broke as Jareth's lips feathered over her ear.  
  
"That - at least - is certainly the truth," he breathed, his mouth trailing lower toward the curve of her breast. "But there are other truths for you to understand. Sarah. You. Belong. To. Me." Jareth emphasized each word with a nip that while not exactly intended to be painful, was hard enough to let Sarah know she was still in trouble. "Since. You. Are. MINE. I will accept nothing less from you than the entire TRUTH. At. All. Times."  
  
Jareth gazed at the tiny bite marks that covered Sarah's white throat and the tops of her breasts with satisfaction. She took advantage of his brief moment of preoccupation to try to heave herself from beneath his weight, but he was far too fast and too strong. Jareth locked her back underneath him and brought his lips so close to hers that they brushed against them teasingly as he spoke.  
  
"I can't have you keeping up that kind of behavior all night, Sarah. And yes, I do think this will take ALL night."  
  
With that, Jareth drew several silken scarves around each of her wrists, using them to secure her tightly to the bed.  
  
Shit. This was getting bad.  
  
Or good.  
  
No! BAD! Definitely bad!  
  
Sarah strained against her bonds only to find that Jareth had done a very good job of making sure she wouldn't be moving much.  
  
"Darling." she pleaded, still trying to twist away from him even though she knew it was hopeless.  
  
Jareth knew he couldn't hold out if she kept calling him that, so he decided to quiet her with a long, slow, punishing kiss.  
  
Sarah's endearments were all reduced to a somewhat smothered "mmph!" under Jareth's ministrations. She tensed as his hands started to roam over her supple flesh, pushing the robe she was wearing aside. She couldn't see anything he was about to do, but could hear him suck in his breath as her body was exposed to his gaze. She was expecting whatever he had planned to hurt quite a bit and braced herself for what was coming.  
  
Jareth saw her rigid and trembling beneath him and almost relented. She must think he was some kind of monster. Very well then. Let her wonder.  
  
With soft, slow strokes, he started to massage her body, kneading every inch of tension from her muscles. Against her better judgment, Sarah felt her body melt like butter under his fingertips and a groan of pleasure escaped her lips. Massage? He was giving her a MASSAGE? If this was punishment, she vowed to make Jareth's life as difficult as possible for the rest of her days.  
  
Delightful! Jareth thought. So far this was going according to plan.  
  
As soon as he felt her body begin to ripple with contentment, Jareth reached up and twisted his hand in her hair so that he could hold her head perfectly still. Sarah gave a small cry of alarm that he quickly silenced with another deep, possessive kiss. He tightened his hold on her, one arm circling her waist, the other free to explore her beauty at will. His hands on her body were demanding, crushing her to him in a cruel embrace, bringing a gasp from her lips as his caresses became bolder.  
  
Jareth's touch was gentle compared to the emotions storming around inside Sarah. She was furious that he thought he could just swoop her up any old time and .and.make her feel so wonderful, damn the man. She couldn't deny her fear at being left completely vulnerable before him, nor could she deny the desire that seemed to sear through her like lightning. And further to all of that, she was good and pissed off.  
  
No matter what he did to her tonight she was going to memorize that pound cake spell come hell or high water.  
  
"Please, Jareth. Let's talk about this.mmph."  
  
It was clear that her husband had no intention of allowing her to defend herself.  
  
Jareth started nipping at her again, this time lightly as he pressed the length of his body along Sarah's, grinding his hips against hers so that she could feel the full measure of the effect she was having on him. He felt her pull away, but would have none of it and roughly yanked her back against him.  
  
"Jareth. I mean it. LET ME GO!! You are being completely unfair!"  
  
The Goblin King only laughed as he looked down on his flushed and panting queen. Really he didn't think she had ever looked lovelier.  
  
"Sarah, Sarah. You say that so often-"  
  
"You wonder what my basis for comparison is. I get it. I get it already. Now untie me this instant."  
  
"I'm afraid I can't do that, my dear. There are consequences for those who lie to me. Dire consequences."  
  
Sarah's lower lip jutted out defiantly, but inside, she was quaking. Well, seething would be a more accurate term for her feelings and yes, she had every intention of dealing with Jareth as soon as she was out of this, but that would be then. This was now. Now was feeling a little scary.  
  
"So you wanted to learn about magic? Why not tell me the truth about that? Hmmm?"  
  
Jareth punctuated his questions with tantalizing little flicks of his tongue along some very sensitive regions. A soft moan escaped Sarah's lips in response. Why she was shamelessly plastering herself to her husband when she should be enraged at him was beyond her. Ha! Who was she kidding? She knew perfectly well why her body was acting like an industrial adhesive. Well, if she was Queen of the Underground now, she had once been an American citizen and maintained her right to Plead the Fifth.  
  
A sharp bite on her collarbone brought her to attention.  
  
"Sarah, I expect an answer." Jareth's tone sounded dangerous.  
  
"I kept asking you about the things that were happening to me! I've ASKED you about the - oh! - amazing - oh god! - THING that happens whenever we - oh, Jareth, yes! - touch!"  
  
After a moment or two of making her tremble in ecstasy, Jareth stopped what he was doing and nuzzled her gently.  
  
"And?" The word coming from him was more of a command than a question.  
  
"You would never answer me! What did you expect me to do? Stand by and let all these crazy changes happen to me without trying to learn about them?"  
  
"Do try to remember that I am the one asking the questions here," he murmured, pinching her nipple lightly.  
  
No. He was NOT going to get away with that. Sarah didn't want to have this argument when she couldn't even see his face, but it looked like now or never. She took a deep breath to steady herself and drove toward the truth.  
  
"Jareth, were you planning to hold me under your power by keeping me ignorant?"  
  
He paused. Well, now that she mentioned it, he thought that was a fantastic idea. If he could keep her blindfolded and tied to his bed for the rest of her life he might even have a small chance of pulling it off.  
  
He took a long look at his queen. Even bound and helpless the woman had a look of determination about her that he didn't think he could quell anytime soon. Honestly, Sarah's strength of will was one of the things he loved most about her and he realized then that he never wanted to change it.  
  
Even Jareth knew when to admit defeat.  
  
"Ah, Sarah," he let out a long sigh. "I don't think I could manage such a thing even if I wanted to."  
  
Tenderly he stroked her pale skin and felt her tremble beneath him, though this time he didn't think she was shivering from fear.  
  
"My dearest love, if you want to learn to use your powers, we'll start as soon as possible. You have my promise that I will hold nothing back from you. However-"  
  
Ah ha. She knew there had to be a catch.  
  
"-you must hold NOTHING back from me. Never lie to me, Sarah."  
  
Unable to restrain himself any longer, Jareth gently started to ravish his wife. He devoured her soft lips until they were swollen and pouting. Cupping her breasts in his hands, he flicked his fingers over sensitive flesh until she was writhing against the bonds that held her, pleading with him to let her touch him. Relenting at last, he tore impatiently at the knots in the scarves around her wrists until she was free.  
  
Sarah reached up to remove the blindfold, but Jareth stopped her.  
  
"No. Just feel me holding you," he breathed. His hands caressed every inch of her body like a sculptor shaping a masterpiece. In her own silky darkness, Sarah gasped as she felt Jareth's mouth tracing the curve of her shoulders and then dip lower to follow her spine. As if with a will of their own, Jareth's fingers tangled in the hair at the nape of her neck, stroking through lightly. She could feel him savor the softness of her tresses as he pooled her hair in his hands, bringing his face close to inhale her scent.  
  
Every way she turned, she met his skin, his warm breath. She was completely enveloped by her husband as his arms folded around her like wings, pinning her to his body. She couldn't move and didn't want to. In her sightlessness, her other senses savored Jareth's heartbeat, his smell like fresh autumn, the taste of his sweat on her tongue. His hands, now gentle, coaxed tremors of pleasure from Sarah's very core. Not knowing where he would touch her next, she felt his fingers brush over her lips and then draw down over the hollow of her throat. She cried out into his mouth as her pleasure started to build.  
  
More than ever Jareth wanted her to see him - really SEE HIM. Not some evil sorcerer who had stolen her brother, not the jealous king who had abducted her from her world, or the idiot that she would probably want to clobber in the morning, but rather, the man who loved her with all of his heart. The man who would do anything to keep her by his side.  
  
He finally shifted to face her and slipped the scarf from her eyes, meeting her gaze and knowing in that moment that he beheld his equal. His queen.  
  
Sarah had been angry, but this night she had also felt the first threads of trust start to form between her and her husband. She knew that she needed a teacher. Jareth seemed to need someone who could stand up to him. Perhaps he would learn a little humility after she had practiced a few transmutation spells on him. A pound cake had seemed like a good idea earlier on, but now she was thinking she might enjoy the companionship of a beagle. She'd always thought they were the cutest.  
  
Jareth wasn't worried a bit about teaching Sarah magic. He figured he could sucker Damien into volunteering to help. His younger brother would be the perfect guinea pig for Sarah's transmutation spell practice.  
  
Both of them smiled at their thoughts as they reached for each other to spend their passion. This would be the beginning of a beautiful partnership. 


	18. Meet the Parents

Disclaimer: I don't own anything or anyone from "Labyrinth". This fic is just my humble equivalent of taco salad.  
  
Chapter 18  
  
Sarah's jaw almost hit the floor.  
  
Should she scream because there was a strange man in her bedroom or was that really her husband?  
  
She knew that Jareth had a lovely singing voice and the man bellowing "Good Morning Merry Sunshine" to her at the top of his lungs sounded somewhat like the husband she knew. Whoever it was, his ass in jeans was enough to cause a ten-car pileup. Jareth stood before her in a crisp white shirt with the sleeves casually rolled up and a few buttons left undone to show off the pendant he always wore. His hair had been pulled back into a neat ponytail and his jeans fit him like - well it was indecent to admit what they fit him like.  
  
Sarah goggled at him for a moment, then decided that she had to be dreaming and pulled the covers back over her head.  
  
Jareth was hurt. He had spent hours in secret with Whimsyn to get those jeans to fit PERFECTLY and this was what he got for it? Without further ado, he stripped the covers off of his wife, scooped her up in his arms, and carried her to the bathroom where he dropped her straight into the Jacuzzi tub. My she made a nice splash. His morning was improving already.  
  
Sarah's own rating of her morning had already plummeted to 5.8. Make that a 2.3. That water was just a leeee-tle on the icy side. Gasping and spluttering, she lunged for her husband to drag him into the tub with her and give him a good dunking, but he dodged her easily.  
  
"Tsk-tsk. If you don't behave, then you won't get your surprise," he purred, watching her from a safe distance with a self-satisfied grin on his face.  
  
Sarah's gaze shot daggers as she sulked in a sopping, freezing puddle inside the tub.  
  
"If this water doesn't get any warmer, I'll go hypothermic and I'll be damn lucky to survive this surprise let alone the next," she muttered, her eyes challenging him to prove otherwise.  
  
"I didn't realize you were so fragile." he laughed. He edged toward the tub, keeping a very close eye on Sarah just in case she tried to jump him again and dipped his fingers into the water. Instantly, she felt the water heat and saw tiny lilac-scented bubbles foam around her.  
  
"And, Sarah," the king smiled at her knowing his next gesture would probably just get him into more trouble, "do drink this before you speak to me again." A steaming mug of coffee appeared at the edge of the tub.  
  
Sarah didn't know whether to kiss him or kill him.  
  
Twenty minutes later, she reluctantly left the warm bathroom to search for Jareth. When she entered their bedroom he wasn't anywhere in sight, but sitting on the bed was a package exquisitely wrapped with a card bearing her name on it. Curiously, she picked up the card and opened it.  
  
"To my beautiful wife,  
  
Keeping you warm at night is my greatest pleasure. Please accept my gift to keep you warm during the day.  
  
Jareth"  
  
Sarah opened the package and gave a little squeal of happiness. He was going to keep his word and allow her to see her family after all. Of course! That explained the jeans. She lifted a deliciously soft sweater from the package and a pair of wool slacks. Inside she also found some warm socks and a set of fine leather boots. Happily, she donned her new outfit and went to look at herself in the mirror. The red color of the sweater brought out the natural blush on her cheeks and the slacks made her legs look long and sexy. That Whimsyn was an artist.  
  
As she caught her reflection, she also caught Jareth trying to sneak up behind her. She whirled on him and before he could react, threw her arms around him in a bear hug. Poor Jareth was nearly knocked off his feet. Not that he noticed. The experience of Sarah throwing herself into his arms with a cry of joy had just made his life. Perhaps this visit to her parents wouldn't be all that bad.  
  
Jareth had been alternately looking forward to the trip Aboveground and dreading it. He looked forward to anything that might give him a sturdier foothold in Sarah's affections. He was dreading their journey because his knowledge of Aboveworld culture and customs was somewhat limited. He hated to admit it, but the majority of his experiences Aboveground had involved kidnapping children or spying on Sarah. Given the violent reactions of the mortals he'd encountered to said kidnappings, he suspected that abducting children wasn't socially acceptable in Sarah's world. He was even more afraid of the reaction he would get if his wife knew he had been watching her for the past thirteen years or so.  
  
Sarah was a bundle of excitement and jumbled questions: When would they be leaving? How long could they stay? How much should she pack? Could she bring them presents? In her excitement she had completely forgotten to let go of her husband and chattered on animatedly about her family, eyes shining with anticipation. Jareth's arms stayed laced around her as he basked in her frequent and radiant smiles. He could get used to this.  
  
"My dear, we'll leave this afternoon - or as soon as we can gather together everything we'll need. We can stay for one week - later visits may be longer, but I don't know how you'll react to the world your family lives in now that you are Fae. I'm not taking any risks with you." Jareth said, pulling her into his chest protectively. "As for presents, I'll need your guidance, but I'm certain we can manage something."  
  
"Oh thank you, Jareth!! I lov-" Sarah cut herself off abruptly. WHAT had she almost said? She was suddenly aware of the way her husband was looking at her.  
  
And Jareth was looking very amused indeed.  
  
"You were saying?" he grinned at her wolfishly.  
  
"Oh! What was I saying? Ah yes! PRESENTS! I just LOVE picking out presents for people!" she babbled just a little too loudly as she tried to slither out of the king's arms.  
  
Jareth decided not to let go of her just yet. Instead he kept his arms coiled around her waist as he continued to smile at her wickedly.  
  
"Is that all, little one, or is there something else you wanted to say?"  
  
NO.  
  
Really.  
  
Sarah had NOTHING to say.  
  
Dammit.  
  
Dammit all to that infernally disgusting Bog.  
  
Jareth was looking at her expectantly. Sarah's cheeks were burning and she couldn't meet his gaze. As king, Jareth could have ordered any woman he wanted to be his queen. Why he had chosen to marry her was a total mystery to Sarah, but she doubted that he had married her for love. When he had offered her the option of becoming his wife, she had been a mortal woman - plain and simple. Jareth could have chosen some beautiful, magical fairy princess for a wife instead. Well, Sarah could make the world's best taco salad, but Jareth would have no way of knowing about her special talent and she wasn't sure that he was really a taco salad kind of a guy.  
  
"Um.Jareth, do you like taco salad?" she stammered.  
  
"Taco-what?" he asked, utterly confused.  
  
"Never mind," Sarah muttered, finally disengaging herself from his arms.  
  
"Sarah! I ." Jareth made a grab for her but she was already out of reach.  
  
"Yes?" she said, whirling back to face him.  
  
The look in his eyes was so intense that she felt pinned to the spot.  
  
"Nothing," he sighed. Jareth would move the stars if it might mean that Sarah would return his love, but he didn't want to force a confession from her. If she loved him, he wanted her to tell him of her own accord.  
  
Of course you could always tell her how YOU feel about HER, a little voice nagged him inside his head. Why should he tell her? he grumbled to himself stubbornly. He'd shown her how he felt in every way he could imagine. Shouldn't that be more than enough to make his position clear?  
  
"Jareth." Sarah said, trying to smile, "I guess we'd better pack."  
  
"Mmm.I've already completed most of that for us. But you mentioned gifts - what would your family enjoy?"  
  
That was a corker. There were lots of things in the Underground that she was certain her family would love, but those things were still from the UNDERGROUND. Jareth had actually put on jeans for this. The last thing she needed to do was blow their cover.  
  
"I suppose we should just stop by a bookstore and a few gift shops when we travel Aboveground," she sighed resignedly. "I think they would get a little suspicious of our story of how we met if we brought them magic crystals and a pixie pet."  
  
"Oh I have a few ideas of my own," Jareth said silkily, blessing Sarah with yet another one of his famously sinister grins.  
  
Sarah raised an eyebrow at him. He wouldn't do anything to hurt her family would he? Of course not! Otherwise, why all the trouble to concoct a semi- plausible story complete with costumes?  
  
Several hours later, Sarah, dressed in a warm wool coat, clung to Jareth holding their suitcase as he prepared to transport them to the Aboveworld. Instead of the buffeting winds she was expecting, the couple was enveloped in a warm, silvery light.  
  
"Close your eyes, my queen," Jareth whispered.  
  
Sarah obeyed. She opened them again when Jareth tapped her on the shoulder. To her delight, she found herself peering about the familiar patch of woods behind her parents' home.  
  
"Why was that so easy? The last time we did this, your magic was so violent I was afraid I'd get blown away!"  
  
Jareth reddened a bit.  
  
"Couldn't very well have you escaping, now could I?" he murmured, taking her hand in his and leading her toward the house.  
  
As Sarah recalled, the risk of her getting away in that moment had been minimal since he had tied her up and had also been holding her tightly in his arms; but for once, she decided not to argue. He was her husband now and there was no getting away from THAT even if World War III were to happen right there in her parents' back yard.  
  
As they neared the front door, Sarah belatedly remembered that she had wanted to bring her family a few gifts.  
  
"Jareth, maybe we could stop at a gift shop somewhere?"  
  
"Don't worry, love. It's taken care of," Jareth beamed, looking quite pleased with himself. In his arms, he held an enormous gift basket filled with peaches.  
  
That was it. Sarah was going to kill him.  
  
Timing was never on her side. He had already rung the bell.  
  
The door flew open and Sarah was nearly bowled over by the impact of the adolescent boy's hug. Toby kept forgetting that he was almost as big as Sarah now.  
  
"Sarah!! Sarah, you're back!!" he kept shouting over and over. Richard and Karen weren't far behind and enveloped their daughter in hugs and kisses and tears.  
  
"I'm so sorry I worried you guys so much!" Damn. She was crying again. The little family held each other for a few moments until Jareth gently cleared his throat.  
  
"Oh! Oh my! Well we've certainly let our hospitality slip! Sarah, please introduce us to your.ah.husband." Richard was eyeing Jareth with a high degree of suspicion. If what Sarah had told him was true, then this man was responsible for saving his daughter's life. Something about the man was unsettling though. He looked regal, powerful, and in control - like a person accustomed to taking the things he wanted. If his little Sarah wasn't completely happy with this stranger, Richard would cheerfully wring his neck.  
  
Jareth was also sizing up Richard from where he stood on the porch. He didn't miss the glimmer of wariness in Richard's eyes. The king pasted on his most charming and harmless smile and held his hand out to Sarah's father.  
  
"I'm honored to meet you, sir. My name is Jareth. Jareth King."  
  
Sarah almost fainted from shock. She had never heard her husband address ANYONE with "sir". Where the heck did he learn that?  
  
Somewhat mollified, Richard took Jareth's proffered hand and shook it, squeezing just a little too hard. To his surprise, Jareth easily matched his grip. He watched as Jareth slid one arm possessively around Sarah while holding out the basket of peaches with one hand.  
  
"Mr. and Mrs. Williams," Jareth smiled, "I've brought you a gift."  
  
Sarah didn't trust the look in her husband's eyes for a second.  
  
She took the basket from his grasp saying, "Why don't I just carry this inside," while shooting the king a very pointed look.  
  
Fine, fine. Jareth knew he would have his fun with this situation one way or another. He simply grinned at his wife and followed her parents into the house.  
  
Sarah was planning to discreetly carry the peaches straight to the dumpster outside, but Karen ambushed her before she could make it through the kitchen and lifting the basket from Sarah's grasp, insisted on hanging her coat while her father carried their bags upstairs. Toby had finally stopped leaping around them excitedly and stood staring at the Goblin King with intense curiosity. His brow furrowed momentarily, as if he were trying to remember something.  
  
"What is it, my young man?" asked Jareth genially.  
  
"Oh.nothing," Toby muttered. He looked embarrassed and Jareth noticed the boy's family resemblance to Sarah. He still has my eyes though, the king thought, oddly pleased.  
  
Karen bustled about making hot cocoa and directing everyone to please have a seat in the living room so that they all could get better 'acquainted'. The first few minutes of sitting were somewhat uncomfortable, but at her father's prompting, Sarah again related the story of how she had gone out to see a friend in crisis, fallen down and hurt her head then developed a consuming fever. When she got to the part about Jareth finding her, she milked it for all it was worth, telling her parents how he had been a hero and cared for her so tenderly while she had been ill.  
  
Jareth loooooooooved this part. Anything to listen to Sarah sing his praises. He figured he was probably in big trouble for the peach basket, but her monologue about his greatness would allow him to live in denial for at least a few more hours. The fact that he was watching Sarah with a stupidly happy grin on his face set her parents somewhat more at ease and the conversation started to flow more freely.  
  
"So, Jareth," said Richard genially. "We haven't heard your account of these events yet. Tell us your version of the story!"  
  
To panic or not to panic. Sarah's eyes were enormous as she looked over at her husband. She couldn't imagine what he would come up with, but had a sinking sensation that she was about to find out. That sparkle in his eye made her more than a little nervous.  
  
"Well, I was minding my own business when I came across the most beautiful woman in the world lying in a heap in the gutter. Naturally, I was concerned for her welfare and so I was checking her for injuries when she started to move. I asked her if she was all right and then offered to help her out of the rain. By the time I was able to carry her back to my home, it was clear that she had developed a bad fever and so I cared for her as best I could. I had no idea who she was and she seemed in no condition to tell me."  
  
Okay. So far, so good. Sarah almost got a sigh of relief in there before her father's next question. Almost.  
  
"Ah," said Richard, in a measured tone. "And you never considered calling the police?"  
  
"She seemed to be faring well enough without them," countered Jareth testily. "She was perfectly safe with me."  
  
"I see. And just HOW did you care for Sarah?"  
  
"DAD!" Sarah cut in sotto voce, indicating Toby out of the corner of her eyes. "Jareth was completely kind and attentive. I couldn't help falling head over heels in love with him!" Crud. She knew her story had more holes than a sieve. She couldn't see how her parents had ever believed the reasons she'd given them for her sudden marriage. She wasn't even a practicing Catholic!  
  
Richard and Jareth sat glowering at each other and Sarah seized the moment to lean over and give her husband a resoundingly loud smooch.  
  
"He's really the best thing that's ever happened to me, Dad. I couldn't trust anyone more."  
  
Richard saw Sarah's brilliant smile and shining eyes and grudgingly gave into the fact that the stranger in front of him had captured his daughter's heart. He could practically feel his arms creaking as he let go of his suspicions and welcomed Jareth into the family with a warm hug.  
  
Sarah thought her face might fall off if she had to keep smiling like that. For gods sake, her eyes were starting to tear up from the strain. At least she still had her sense of humor.  
  
Ticket home: one forced marriage and a crystal.  
  
Basket of peaches: one conjuring spell.  
  
The look on Jareth's face when her father hugged him: Priceless.  
  
Suddenly the smile on Sarah's face was no longer forced. If anything she was struggling to hold in her merriment. Seeking any excuse to leave, she murmured something about helping Karen in the kitchen and practically ran out of the door. She wasn't sure how smart she was to leave Jareth and her father alone, but if she didn't make a quick exit, she was going to explode.  
  
As she entered the kitchen, she found Karen who looked at her with a knowing light in her eyes.  
  
"Sweetheart, he seems wonderful!" her stepmother gushed. "And so handsome too!"  
  
Oh god. Sarah wasn't certain she could listen to this. If Karen only knew.  
  
Sarah's relationship with her stepmother had been pretty rocky through her teens, but once those raging hormones had settled down to a calmer level, she had started to appreciate Karen a little more. Sarah's own mother had abandoned the Williams family to pursue her acting career when Sarah was only ten. At first Karen was never able to measure up to Sarah's fantasies about her "real" mother, but over time, Sarah had to come to care for her stepmother - even love her. Karen asked about her day, listened to her problems, remembered her birthday, and made her chicken soup when she was sick. The most Sarah ever got from Linda was the occasional card. And even then, Sarah could tell that Linda's personal assistant had signed it.  
  
"So, Sarah, tell me a little bit more about this Jareth. I have to confess I was really surprised when you called us and told us you were married. No offense, darling, but you haven't dated a lot over the years. Don't get me wrong - I'm truly happy for you! It's just that.this seems so unlike you. Want to talk about it a little? Set a mother's mind at ease?"  
  
The urge to tell Karen the truth was so strong that it was physically painful for Sarah.  
  
"Jareth.um.rescued me and.ah.he was so kind and uh.I just couldn't help falling in love with him."  
  
Well, that wasn't entirely a lie. She was (to her incredible dawning horror) starting to have feelings for her husband.  
  
"It's certainly obvious that he's head over heels in love with YOU, dear. The way he looks at you is enough to make MY knees week and I'm an old woman and your wicked stepmother to boot! Anytime you so much as open your mouth to speak to him, the man practically glows with happiness."  
  
Could it really be true? Sarah wanted to believe Karen so badly, but her experiences with Jareth and his fondness for 'games' gave her pause. Sarah didn't want to lie to herself about her situation or end up breaking her own heart by giving her trust to man who couldn't keep it. If she counted up the days, she had only KNOWN Jareth for a week or so. If he were playing a game with her, he would only now be placing the finishing touches on whatever elaborate snare he had been planning for her all along.  
  
Elaborate snare, huh? Two could play at that game.  
  
"Karen, I was hoping you'd let me cook tonight. I haven't made my taco salad for you guys in awhile."  
  
Sarah didn't have to ask twice.  
  
Within moments, Sarah was cheerfully cooking up ingredients with Karen's (thankfully non-iron) all-copper kitchen set. As she cooked, she couldn't help but think of the man she hoped to impress with her culinary skills. Chopping up the vegetables, she thought of Jareth as he had looked when she had first told him she would consider marrying him - so surprised and vulnerable. Her mind wandered further to their wedding day, his gentle assurances as she greeted the fae nobility for the first time, and the night he had come to her rescue when his goblins were chasing her. By the time she was spicing the beef, she was remembering the 'interesting' evening they had shared only the day before. Sarah was still furious with him for that and had every intention of turning him into a beagle and tying HIM to something stationary; but while she trembled at the mere thought of being so utterly at her husband's mercy, 'rage' was not the only word for her feelings.  
  
If Sarah had been paying more attention she might have noticed the sparks of magic that seemed to be flying from her fingertips as she was cooking. She might have hesitated to serve the dish she was preparing if she saw those little flecks of light melting into meat and vegetables she was mixing together. Honestly, the smell alone should have tipped her off. A taco salad didn't usually give off an odor that made a person think of sunshine, sex, and tropical breezes under a perfect blue sky. Sarah, remaining completely clueless (as she seemed to about so many things these days) was merely pleased that her cooking skills had not gone stale. She decided to skip the modesty thing and admit that this was the best taco salad she had ever made.  
  
"Dinner's ready!" she called as she carried her culinary creation proudly into the dining room. What she saw was enough to make her stop dead. Jareth and her father were thrashing about on the floor and Toby was jumping around shouting. It looked like Jareth had her father in some sort of death grip and Toby was counting "Three! Two! One!!" 


	19. The Joy of Cooking

Author's note: Many, many thanks to everyone who has reviewed. I'm lousy about responding to individual reviews, but have tried to incorporate the comments you guys have passed on to make this a better fic. Squeezy Stan, you'll finally see the revisions you gave me for Chapter 1! To those who say Sarah fell for Jareth too fast, I say "yeah, I think you're right" and so do check Chapter 18 for revisions. I've also revised Chapters 17 (Punishment) and Chapter 14 (Alone At Last). Keep the comments coming if you have them because I do pay attention and am just happy anyone is reading this and enjoying it. (  
  
Warning: This chapter has some steamy content. If you prefer your chapters broiled or fried instead of steamed you are plumb outta luck and should skip this one.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these people although they seem to be pretty possessive of each other.  
  
Chapter 19  
  
"And the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt goes to ..JARETH!!"  
  
Toby's joyful shout echoed through the room as Sarah dropped her taco salad on the table with a thump and ran to her father who was lying in a sweaty heap on the floor.  
  
"Dad! Are you okay?" she hollered, bending down at his side. Her father lay there panting, looking completely embarrassed. Sarah shot an accusing glare at her husband to which Jareth responded with a look of wide-eyed 'who me?' innocence.  
  
"What exactly happened here?" she asked in a tone that would have made a glacier seem cozy.  
  
Three sheepish pairs of male eyes turned toward her.  
  
"Jareth was.um.showing me some new wrestling holds," muttered Richard as he started to get up and dust himself off.  
  
"That's right," Jareth jumped in. "Your father was actually doing quite well."  
  
Richard flushed. Sarah couldn't believe it but her father actually looked PLEASED at Jareth's compliment. Her reality had taken so many blows over the past week that life was starting to feel like one giant boot to the head. Her temper rose as she watched her father wince and rub his shoulder as he unfolded himself from the floor. Jareth was quick to offer a hand and managed to pat her father on the shoulder as he helped him up. She felt the healing spell go off and saw her father's eyes flick up in surprise.  
  
"Is everything all right?" Jareth asked, leaning in toward her father in solicitously.  
  
"Sure," her dad replied. "That's funny. My shoulder was a little sore, but I guess you cracked it back into place or something."  
  
"Or something," Sarah muttered darkly. Her attention drifted to Toby, who was looking hopeful that she might have forgotten about him.  
  
"And you - what was your part in this?" she demanded, turning on him.  
  
"Uh.referee?" His voice cracked on the last word.  
  
Sarah couldn't resist a smile and all three of the men before her breathed audible sighs of relief.  
  
"Now that you three have finished beating each other to a manly pulp, perhaps you could help set up the table for dinner. My taco salad won't wait all night you know."  
  
Jareth's eyebrows shot up. There she was going off about this 'taco salad' again. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. Just what was 'taco salad'? Was she planning to take revenge for last night? And heavens! To make matters worse, she had just caught him grappling with her father on the floor. He'd only meant it as a friendly wrestling match (he kept telling himself), but the man had been baiting him until he could stand it no further.  
  
As soon as Sarah had rushed from the room, Richard had fixed him with a steely stare and started firing questions at him about his job, his income and his intentions for taking care of Sarah. Jareth had tried to remain calm and make up suitable answers to Richard's inquiries, but this kind of treatment from a mere human PEASANT was simply too much. Jareth vowed to teach this lowly man who called himself Sarah's father some respect for those of royal station.  
  
He started in on Richard with a few questions of his own, mainly in regard to any experience that Richard may have had with combat training. Sarah's father was only too eager to brag about all of his high school wrestling awards.  
  
Such a pity.  
  
Jareth had leapt at the chance to challenge the man and give full reign to his "Inner Goblin" and Toby had jumped up and begged to referee the match. Jareth would have preferred not to involve witnesses in this particular encounter, but thought better of alienating the young boy. If Toby liked him, then it would be that much more leverage on his side to win Sarah's love.  
  
Within moments the two men were grappling violently with each other on the floor. Jareth dodged Richard's attempts to pin him as easily as if he had been wrestling with a small boy instead of a grown man measuring 6'1". After a few moments of scrabbling about, the king decided to stop playing and trapped Richard in a headlock. Had he been at home in the Underground, he would have given little thought to pounding the man into a pulp now that he had him pinned. However, he suspected that his wife might have a similar fate in store for him if he even so much as harmed a hair on her poor father's head.  
  
Ah well.  
  
Toby began the countdown as Jareth held onto Richard's thrashing form. The Goblin King suppressed a yawn.  
  
Silly mortals.  
  
He released the older man abruptly when he heard Sarah's shocked exclamation.  
  
Crap.  
  
He met her angry gaze with as much of a harmless and confused-looking stare as he could muster.  
  
She didn't buy it. Not that he really thought she would. If it hadn't been for Toby's moment of adolescent cracked-voiced vulnerability, Jareth knew he would have been sleeping on the floor tonight. He felt a little chagrined at being 'rescued' by a 13-year-old.  
  
Thankfully, Karen chose that moment to emerge from the kitchen with glasses and utensils, scolding Toby to hurry up and set out the plates.  
  
"Are you boys behaving yourselves?" she asked teasingly as Toby made a quick exit behind her.  
  
She took one moment to absorb the hangdog expressions on the faces of the men and Sarah's wry silence before quickly saying, "No, don't answer that. This taco salad smells so good I don't want anything to spoil it for me."  
  
Shooting a pointed glare at Richard and a sweet smile at Jareth, Karen finished setting the table as Toby returned with a set of plates.  
  
Sarah sighed, watching it all. She wondered if she would screw up the courage to tell Karen the truth about her marriage before she returned to the Underground. She snorted at herself in disgust. In Sarah's opinion, Karen was a very open-minded individual, but she thought that telling her stepmother that she was now royalty in the faerie realm might be pushing the envelope a little far. With a sigh of resignation, Sarah sat at her place and started dishing up the meal.  
  
Jareth looked at the entrée his wife had prepared warily. The stuff looked AWFUL. All that greenery and meat and cheese tossed together - what a MESS! He thought Sarah should consider herself very lucky to be as beautiful and charming as she was if her cooking looked like something one of his goblins would think up. Sure the smell of the stuff was enticing, but he secretly thought that the mortals who lived Aboveground must be pretty hard up if they were looking at something like THAT with mouth-watering hunger.  
  
Plastering his best "I'll try anything once" smile on his face, Jareth dished up what he considered to be the heartiest portion he might be able to choke down. He was horrified when Karen leaned over him clucking like his mother and dished him a portion three times the size of the one he had originally served himself.  
  
"Now, Jareth, we have more than enough to go around. Sarah made up an extra vat in the kitchen!" she cooed, beaming.  
  
An extra VAT?! With a warrior's will, Jareth kept his smile in place and managed a 'thank you' to Karen. He stared in disbelief as the other members of Sarah's family practically tore into the pile on their plates. Calling on every ounce of protocol he had ever learned, Jareth speared part of the mess in front of him with his fork and took a small bite.  
  
After a minute or two he noticed that everyone at the table was staring at him.  
  
"So you enjoy the dish?" Karen asked with a bemused twinkle in her eye.  
  
Jareth turned royal crimson when he realized that the moans of pleasure he'd been hearing were his own.  
  
Sarah was immensely satisfied with herself. She knew she made the best taco salad on the planet and thought it was high time that Jareth appreciated the fact that she had a few talents of her own.  
  
Sadly, although Sarah had many, many talents to be discovered, having a clue was not one of them.  
  
She noticed that Jareth was looking unusually handsome - if there WAS any such thing over the way he usually looked. She noticed that the room seemed to be a little warm.  
  
She did not immediately notice the glances that Karen and Richard had started to exchange across the table.  
  
In fact, she thought nothing of it when Karen arose from her seat, tossed a sultry look over her shoulder at Sarah's dad and sauntered over to the CD player with a deliberate twitch to her hips to put on some Cole Porter. Richard could hardly rip his eyes away from his wife and devoured his food with a hungry stare that was not directed toward the steaming mass of meat and spices in front of him. When Karen returned to her seat, her cheeks were flushed and she allowed her fork to linger on her lips as she slowly took a bite of taco salad, keeping her gaze locked with Richard's the whole time. Richard seemed suddenly short of breath.  
  
Enjoying his dinner with all the gusto of a boy in his early teens, Toby found his mind wandering to the pretty girl with red hair that sat in front of him in science class. Suddenly he remembered that her shampoo always smelled like strawberries. He'd never cared about Valentine's Day before, but he realized it was coming up soon. Maybe she liked poetry? Candy? What did you get a pretty girl on Valentines Day without making her think you were totally stupid? He continued to munch his taco salad, now deeply in thought.  
  
Sarah happily devoured her own portion and helped herself to seconds, still blissfully unaware of the tableau unfolding around her. Jareth, however, had never had such an erotic experience over a meal in his life. Every bite of tender chicken and beef made him think of nibbling gently on Sarah's earlobes. The spices laced through the dish seemed to explode in his mouth and another wave of shuddering pleasure washed through him. He knew Sarah's passion was every bit as explosive as those spices. The layers of melted cheese made him think of his wife melting in his arms as he did unspeakably decadent things to her.  
  
Gods, was he really thinking of ravishing his wife in terms of CHEESE?!  
  
Speaking of his wife, he didn't think she had ever looked more desirable. He watched with a feral hunter's instinct as she licked her soft lips and took another bite. He had to grip the edge of his chair to stop himself from grabbing her, clearing the plates out of the way and throwing her down so that he could have his way with her there and then.  
  
Sarah looked up as she noticed the silence around the table. People seemed to be taking her taco salad very seriously.  
  
Well good. She deserved to be taken seriously as an artist.  
  
Wait a just a second there. Oh. Oh. OH. Now that just wasn't right. Did her dad just flick his TONGUE at Karen? Did Karen just blush and GIGGLE? Yuck!  
  
Then Sarah noticed the way Jareth was looking at her. If he kept that up her taco salad was bound to get jealous. Feeling disconcerted in the extreme, Sarah leapt to her feet mumbling something about coffee and dessert. Karen rose to help her with a sly smile at Richard.  
  
"Richard, darling," she cooed, "peaches are your favorite aren't they? Let's have Jareth's peaches for dessert!"  
  
Sarah's face went white. Without thinking she practically lunged for the kitchen only to be snatched back by Jareth's firm grip on her arm.  
  
"Don't leave us, Sarah. You've been so busy in the kitchen that you've hardly had a chance to visit with Toby," he said smoothly. "I'll help your mother."  
  
Her father had already stood up. "Let ME help you set everything out, honey!'  
  
Sarah was shocked to see the seductive smile Karen was giving her father from the doorway.  
  
"Oh no! I'll help. I insist!" Jareth had no idea Sarah's parents had such a .healthy.relationship. His Sarah was unbelievably passionate, but he considered her to be the exception. Most of the mortals he had encountered in the past had been stodgy at best by Fae standards. Her parents were quite a surprise and he knew that he had better separate them quickly if those peaches were ever going to make it onto the table.  
  
Grumbling, Richard reluctantly took his seat. Sarah was not so easily cowed. Jareth practically had to shove her back down into her chair and then kept his hands planted firmly on her shoulders to keep her from moving as he asked Karen where she kept the coffee cups. Sarah shot him a glare as she discreetly struggled to rise, but Jareth's hold was immovable as he made a big show of not understanding Karen't instructions properly until Karen emerged with the first peaches set out on dessert plates. Once the coast was "clear", Jareth set out coffee mugs and he and Karen started serving.  
  
"Cream?"  
  
Jareth's grin sent shivers down Sarah's spine.  
  
"Thank YOU," Sarah ground out. Jareth didn't know it yet, but he would indeed be sleeping on the rug that night.  
  
Karen set a plate in front of Sarah with a sliced peach on it, dusted with powdered sugar and real whipped cream.  
  
"No thanks! I'm full!" Sarah chirped.  
  
"Nonsense, darling," Jareth chimed in. "These peaches are very special and I selected them myself for you and your wonderful family. You really have to try them."  
  
"Oh SWEEEEET-HEART," Sarah's voice oozed right back at him, "You're just SOOOOO thoughtful, but I couldn't POSSIBLY eat anything else." She squeezed her husband's hand with a radiant smile and dug her fingernails into it with all of her might.  
  
Jareth didn't even flinch.  
  
"One bite. I do INSIST." He lifted a small slice of peach to her lips on his own fork and gave her a smile that would have devastated a stupider woman.  
  
Sarah's parents had started to look at her curiously. Not wanting to further humiliate herself since she had no explanation for avoiding the peach that she could offer them without blowing her cover, she shot Jareth a glance that should have put him in Intensive Care and took the fruit into her mouth.  
  
Sarah had planned to pretend to cough and then spit it out behind her hand, but the sweetness of the peach wrapped around her tonge like the shimmering veil of a harem dancer. She had never tasted anything that felt as "forbidden" as that peach. The delectable taste of that tiny piece of golden fruit had already curled past her tongue and into her brain, leaving her with thoughts that the authors of the Kama Sutra would have sacrificed a cow to.  
  
Ignoring her parents, Jareth swooped in and pressed his lips to hers, tasting the the few drops of juice that lingered on her mouth.  
  
His senses nearly exploded with the contact.  
  
Okay, EVERYBODY out of the pool.  
  
NOW.  
  
His peaches were powerful, but heavens, he hadn't made them THAT strong. He hadn't even tasted one himself yet and he was being pushed to the limits of his control. Instantly he remembered the taco salad and the feelings he'd been struggling to keep in check so that he wouldn't make love to his wife right there on the table in the dining room. Come to think of it, Richard had seemed to be experiencing the same difficulties with Karen. Maybe Sarah's parents weren't really such 'free spirits' after all. Just maybe somebody had overdone it on the magical Viagra.  
  
His eyes shot over to Sarah in dawning comprehension. That little MINX! She had been so angry that he had brought her family such a special gift to "heighten their senses" and here she had been planning his erotic encounter with a wantonly tossed taco salad from the start.  
  
This meant war.  
  
"So Karen," Jareth smiled across the table at Sarah's stepmother with malicious glee, "how are you enjoying my peaches?"  
  
"Mmmmmm."  
  
Sarah had never heard a moan like that out of anyone she equated with a parental figure before. Even Toby had picked up that something weird was going on and looked like he was trapped between his curiosity about mature adults and being completely grossed out by his parents.  
  
"Mom!" he piped up, his weak stomach finally getting the best of him, "may I please be excused?"  
  
Karen was jolted into awareness and had the sense to look a little embarrassed as she nodded and Toby scampered out of the room as if he were being chased by goblins.  
  
"Richard," Karen breathed, "these really are incredible!" Karen speared a slice of peach with her fork and then dipped it into some whipped cream. She offered the slice to Richard, leaning far closer to him than necessary. Sarah's father looked ready to yank her stepmother into his arms and then worry about tasting the peach afterward. Richard paused teasingly, just brushing the tines of Karen's fork with his puckered lips before snapping up the peach she was dangling as if he were some rabid beast.  
  
Sarah didn't know whether to faint or run.  
  
Karen and Richard didn't notice her horror because they had already forgotten everything and everyone else except each other. They kept feeding each other peach slices and grinning like idiots. Or like adults who are about to participate in something often described in terms of striped, winged creatures diving into trembling blossoms.  
  
"Honey, let me help you .clear the plates," Richard breathed, practically panting all over Karen.  
  
Karen giggled again and licked her lips.  
  
"I guess I could use a little help back there. Those pots and pans get so heavy."  
  
Karen rose from her chair, smoothing her clothes ALL the way down the length of her torso and took Richard's hand and lead him into the kitchen. Seconds later, Sarah heard fumbling, moans and the crash of something breaking but NOTHING could drag her into that room to check out the situation.  
  
Not even a third helping of taco salad.  
  
Jareth took advantage of Sarah's shock to sweep her into his arms and carry her into the living room. She saw that he was headed toward the sofa and started to struggle the minute he put her down.  
  
"You depraved, unprincipled BASTARD!" she shouted, slapping his hands away and trying to rise to her feet. Why did he have to smell so good? That single bite of peach must still be screwing with her senses.  
  
Jareth easily pushed her back down and then settled his weight over her legs. Ignoring her protests, he started pressing passionate kisses to her lips and throat.  
  
"Get OFF!" Sarah yelled, striking out at him with her fists, fighting to keep a clear head as she still tasted the lingering sweetness of the peach on her tongue.  
  
Still limber from his little 'exercise' with Richard, Jareth dodged her blows and caught both of her wrists in in his hands, pinning them to either side of her head. He covered her mouth with his own, silencing her curses.  
  
When Jareth finally came up for air and Sarah's lips were free, she let out a stream of profanity that would have done credit to his most uncouth goblin.  
  
"How DARE you cast a spell on my parents?! They welcomed you into their HOME! They TRUSTED you!"  
  
Gods, she was beautiful when she was angry.  
  
Without further ceremony, he lifted himself off Sarah and snatched her up into his arms before she could run. She kicked and twisted and called him every nasty name in the Goblin Book of Rude Phrases, but Jareth was far too strong for her and he managed to haul her struggling form up the stairs and into her old room, kissing her frequently to keep her quiet.  
  
When they reached her room, he tossed her onto the bed, using his magic to slam the door behind them and lock it. Hmm. He'd better throw in a silencing wall as well. With any luck, this would get pretty noisy.  
  
How the heck did he know where my room was? Sarah wondered, diving off the side of the bed as Jareth tried to pounce.  
  
And what the HELL is going on? she thought again, evading her husband as he made another lunge for her. One minute they'd been enjoying a perfectly lovely dinner and the next.EEEEW! She did NOT want to think about what Karen and Richard were probably doing downstairs in the kitchen. It had to be the fault of those horrible peaches.  
  
Dimly Sarah started to realize that something else was wrong. She didn't remember Jareth having any of the fruit. So why was he acting like this?  
  
"I can't believe you'd feed my FAMILY those god-awful peaches!" she hissed accusingly, darting around the side of the double bed that now took up the space her old twin had once occupied. "WHAT the hell were you THINKING?"  
  
Jareth's mind was so fogged with desire that he scarcely could think. All he could focus on was the tantalizing spice of that cursed salad lingering in his mouth. Fine. If his wife was going to haul off and cast a spell on him, she could bloody well deal with the consequences of her magic.  
  
With an animal growl, Jareth leapt after Sarah like a panther and chased her around the bed. This was fun. He liked games when he knew he couldn't lose.  
  
Finally he cornered her between her vanity and the edge of the mattress. He advanced, drawing out his triumph step by step as she backed away from him. She feinted quickly to his left and then made a break for it in the direction of the door. Jareth's arms closed around her like steel bands and he backed her swiftly onto the bed. Dropping the weight of his body onto hers, he caught her wrists and then held them above her in one hand while he swirled his other hand in the air, producing a perfect, blushing peach.  
  
The smell of that peach was almost more than Sarah could stand. She wanted it. Desperately. But she also wanted to kick her husband where he would never forget it.  
  
Decisions, decisions.  
  
Jareth was so surprised when Sarah suddenly ceased to struggle that he nearly lost his grip on her.  
  
"Could I interest Your Majesty in a bargain?" she whispered coyly.  
  
The teasing light in Sarah's eyes ignited a fire of lust in Jareth's gut. A bargain?  
  
"Go on," he smirked. He was much stronger than she was. He had all day.  
  
"I'll eat your peach.and then you'll tell me what the HELL you think you're DOING!" Sarah emphasized her point by trying to wrench herself out of his grasp, but he caught her again without effort, making certain the crown jewels of the Underground were well out of harms way. He'd seen that look in her eye.  
  
"What I'M doing? YOU were the one who cooked up that enchanted taco-whatsit- glob to nearly drive me out of my mind with desire for you! While we're sitting here cursing at each other, I'd like to ask you what in the name of a Bog-dipped goblin you were EXPECTING? Did you think you could cast a lust spell and not face the consequences - especially when you cast that spell on ME?"  
  
Sarah gasped in outrage.  
  
"I did no such thing! Thanks to you, I didn't even know I had any powers until only last night and then you decided to 'punish' me for trying to use them. Believe me there are a number of spells I would be only too happy to cast on you, but a lust spell is NOT one of them!"  
  
Jareth furrowed his brow as he surveyed the woman in his arms, a little hurt by her words. Maybe he had done more damage than he realized in his attempts to keep her ignorant of her enormous power. Apparently the stuff was running haywire and she was scarcely aware of it, let alone how to control it. This would have to be fixed, though he still loathed the thought of giving up his control. Sarah was the closest thing that Jareth had ever known to someone that he couldn't dominate without question and even then, his magic and her fear of him had always given him the upper hand. He HATED admitting that he might have been wrong. But oh, he loved his wife. He didn't want her to be afraid of him anymore.  
  
Speaking of her feelings, just how DID that taco salad of hers end up laced with a lust spell? Hmmm?  
  
"Sarah," Jareth murmured seductively, "just what were you thinking about when you were cooking up that surprising little entree?"  
  
Sarah remembered the direction her thoughts had taken and couldn't meet his eyes. Why did he have to hold that blasted peach so close? It looked so inviting, so cool and sweet after the spices she had thrown into dinner.  
  
Without thinking, Sarah turned her face toward the peach, lips parted slightly. Jareth lowered it to her mouth, his own lips hovering just above hers as she bit into the soft fruit. Instantly, she forgot everything but the man who was looking at her as if he wanted to devour her as badly as she wanted to consume the rest of peach he still held before her eyes.  
  
Jareth smiled down at the angel beneath him. Yes, the peach was enchanted, but only to bring out feelings of goodwill and love that already existed. This little fruit could create nothing that was not already there. He had brought the gift to her family not to harm them, but rather to make their time together as pleasant and warm as possible. Sarah's unwitting spell on the entrée had made things a little "warmer" than he had ever intended.  
  
Keeping his eyes locked on hers, he bit into the peach himself and then offered her another bite. Jareth found it incredibly erotic to watch his wife's soft mouth tearing into the sweet flesh of the fruit as he fed her from his hand. As the taste of the peach reached into his own senses he found himself overwhelmed by his feelings for Sarah. She was such a delight to him - her wit, her intelligence, her humor. And by the gods, he'd never known a more sensual woman.  
  
Lowering his lips to hers, he tasted the mingling flavors of the fruit and her soft, lovely skin. She opened her mouth under his, deepening their kiss. He finally relaxed his hold on her wrists, caressing them with his fingers and then diving into the shimmering mass of her hair, feeling it's silky texture over his ungloved hands. His need to tell this woman how he felt about her was so strong if felt physically painful.  
  
Now that Sarah's hands were free, she wasted no time exploring every inch of the well-muscled man on top of her. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she pulled herself up to a sitting position and raked her hands through his silver-blonde hair, loosening his long locks from the band that held them. She molded her hips against her husband's, frantically tearing at the buttons on his shirt, seeking the warmth of his flesh against her own. Jareth gasped as he felt her hands trace over his bare chest and then trail over his shoulders, thrusting his shirt aside. He wanted to tear into her like a wild animal, ravish her with the tenderness of the most gentle bridegroom, bask in her slowly like the longest summer day. His heart was beating so hard felt like it was hammering against iron bars. It was as if his body could not contain the feelings she aroused in him.  
  
Jareth pressed her back down on the bed as his hands roved impatiently over her body. His strong hands shoved her clothing aside as his mouth laid seige to every soft, secret place she held for him and him alone. He wanted to move slowly. He wanted to be gentle. He was shaking as he tried to hold onto the few thin threads of self-control he still had left.  
  
Sarah rose up just enough to throw off her sweater before Jareth was upon her again, grasping her to his chest and freeing her soft, insolent breasts from the sheer lace of her bra. He teased her nipples between his fingers, moaning into her mouth as she left him nearly breathless with her kisses. Sarah gazed up at her husband, suddenly filled with a fierce and primal need to posseess him, to have him inside of her. She pressed her hands against his chest to lift him off so she could finish undressing, but Jareth would have none of it. Gripping her tighly by the arms, he kept every inch of her skin pressed to his chest as he rolled himself beneath her. Sarah leapt at the opportunity to slide out of her slacks, but not before she'd yanked Jareth's shirt from where it hung around his waist and thrown it to the side. Gazing at the nearly naked goddess above him, Jareth was struck by the answering need she seemed to feel for him. He had loved his Sarah for so long and here she was, finally in his arms, seeking him out and snatching him to her as if he would fly away any minute.  
  
Never. Never could he leave this woman.  
  
Jareth's eyes shone with a fire that made it very difficult for Sarah to keep breathing. Not that she cared as long as he would keep touching her like that, grasping her closer with his powerful hands. His long fingers twined into her hair masterfully as he brought her lips nearer to his own. She tried to complete the kiss, but he wouldn't allow it. Instead he held her face where it was as he gazed deeply into her eyes. He saw something there, something more than need, something more than fear.  
  
Sarah broke into a slow smile as Jareth continued to stare at her. He caught his breath. Was his wife looking at him with genuine affection? Could he dare believe that she could feel even more?  
  
Cradling her head in his hand, Jareth slowly shifted until he was once more above Sarah, looking down. She was so lovely as ribbons of her dark hair fanned around her on the pillows and her emerald eyes met his curiously. Suddenly aware of their changed positions, her gaze became wary. Her hands lingered lightly on the waistband of his jeans, asking the question. Jareth looked down on her with a positively evil grin.  
  
With a snap of his fingers the jeans were gone. Hmm. She seemed to be missing her remaining garments as well. Sarah gasped at the shock of feeling him suddenly naked against her. He only continued to smile at her with that disconcerting twinkle in his eye. To her, he looked like the wolf in Red Riding Hood, licking his chops. My what sharp teeth you have!  
  
Jareth swept Sarah's hands into his own and joined himself to her in one swift stroke. She gave a soft cry of surprise and then shifted into his rhythm, losing herself in his movements as if she were riding the waves of a storm-tossed ocean. She was grasping and desperate as she keened her pleasure softly in his ear. Jareth murmured back to her, frantically calling her name as he was driven on by his own feral need. Sarah felt as if waves were crashing over her and pulling her under, but she wasn't afraid. She wanted to drown in the sensations washing over her, relentlessly lured onward until she forgot everything but the feel of Jareth clasped deeply within her center.  
  
The waves of sensation were smashing against her harder now and she felt her excitement spinning tighter and tighter until, for one moment, it lay perfectly still like the eye of hurricane. When it broke, the shockwave burst through Sarah like a ring of light, pulsing out until it reached her very fingers and toes. Jareth felt her sudden stillness and release as she cried out into his mouth and finally let his own beast free of its chains. Desire roared through him as he crushed his Sarah to his body, shouting her name, arms and legs wrapped around her, hands tangled with her own. His release was so powerful it threw him down across her soft body. He felt like a fisherman sung to his happy doom by the siren he'd trapped in his net.  
  
With a deep sigh, Jareth moved to Sarah's side, still managing to keep her limbs entwined with his own. If this was doom, doom was looking pretty great. In fact, Jareth felt with a certainty that he was indeed the happiest man alive.  
  
"Jareth?" Sarah's soft whisper broke in on his blissful haze.  
  
"Mmmm?"  
  
"Why did you marry me?" 


	20. I've got the POWer!

Disclaimer: As we all keep telling each other, I own NOTHING from the "Labyrinth". Squat.  
  
Author's note: Deep, sincere thanks to all of my reviewers. I get a big, fat hairy goblin in my soup for being so lousy about responding to reviews individually, but I do want you to know that your comments keep me going on this fic and I make every effort to incorporate any comments/constructive criticism I receive into the story as I go along. Thanks to all of you for helping me with my writing and making this story even better than I could have without your sharp eyes and helpful suggestions!!  
  
Chapter 20  
  
Jareth's body instantly went rigid. Sarah felt the change and disentangled herself from his embrace, trying to see his eyes in the dim light, but his expression remained unreadable. Jareth gazed back at her intently for a few minutes, as if searching for an answer in her face. Finally, he spoke.  
  
"Has it turned out so badly, my dear?" he asked.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Our marriage."  
  
It was Sarah's turn to pause. How in the world could she answer that question? She wouldn't call her relationship with Jareth exactly "smooth", but then it certainly wasn't dull either. If nothing else, at least ONE aspect of their relationship seemed to be very healthy indeed. For heavens sake, she'd only been married to him for a week! How could he even ask her a question like that? Sarah looked back over to Jareth and was surprised by the heat in his eyes. He was looking at her as if the fate of the entire Underground was hanging on her answer.  
  
"Jareth," Sarah said gently, "we've only been married for seven days. I think it's a little soon to say that anything has 'turned out' one way or another, don't you?"  
  
Jareth felt as if his heart had just developed a giant crack in it. He loved his wife so much that it was difficult for him to understand how she could still be unsure of her feelings for him. He knew he wasn't exactly being fair, but by that infernal bog, he was the king! He didn't have to be fair!  
  
"But Jareth, you still haven't answered my question yet. Why DID you marry me? I think I have a right to know."  
  
Crap. Trapped. Ack. Arrgh.  
  
Such were the monosyllabic signals shooting out from Jareth's brain.  
  
Jareth's mouth had other ideas.  
  
"Well, love, marrying you put us in a position to be mutually beneficial to each other instead of adversaries. It seemed the wisest choice at time."  
  
Sarah lifted herself off the bed and stared at her husband. His answer was no more or less than what she had expected. So why did she suddenly feel like she was alone, looking out on the labyrinth again from an empty wasteland? Keeping her face carefully blank, she rested her hands on her hips to hide the fact that they were shaking. She had asked the question - she should be woman enough to swallow the answer, no matter how cruel. Surely she hadn't started to hope that Jareth would harbor feelings for her? Why should he?  
  
"I see. Of course," she managed to choke out. "By marrying you I can see my family regularly. And by marrying me, you - well, what exactly was the benefit to you?"  
  
Jareth's brain started to make wheezing noises again. His mouth, still feeling like a swashbuckling hero from the last "rescue" of said brain, leapt into the fray.  
  
"Why, my dear, with you I can produce an heir."  
  
Sarah's eyes narrowed. Fine. If he didn't love her and never would, that was just the way things were and she would accept it. But she knew utter crap when she was hearing it and nothing would make her accept THAT. She felt like a fool for having entertained the notion that Jareth might want her by his side for any but the most practical of reasons and it was high time that she knew exactly what terms her relationship with her husband was based on.  
  
"Jareth, you could produce an heir with any woman you chose to marry. For all you know, I'm barren."  
  
"Sarah-mine, I doubt that you're barren and if you are.well, I have more than enough Goblins so we'd have the opportunity to 'adopt' sooner or later."  
  
The thought of raising a stolen baby was uncomfortable for Sarah although she supposed it might be a more pleasant fate for the child than Goblin- hood; however, she refused to be swayed from her course.  
  
"But you could still produce an heir with any fairy princess - why me?"  
  
Jareth's brain had already turned off and was lying quietly in the fetal position. Mouth brandished its sword and thought about adopting an alias - "Suave Saver"? - "Hot Lips"?  
  
"Well, there was that small issue of you once having triumphed over my labyrinth - ONCE, mind you. I've certainly made a few 'improvements' since your last run through it. However, allowing you, a human, into the Underground and then releasing you - how can I put this? That kind of thing hasn't happened in more than a thousand years and it created an 'interesting' political situation for me. Having you return to the Underground and live at my side as my wife demonstrates your absolute loyalty to me. If the 'conqueror' of the labyrinth has chosen to commit her life to its king, no one in the Underground would dare to question my power."  
  
As he watched Sarah's face, Jareth's Brain started to rouse itself from its stupor. She stood up hastily and started fumbling for her clothes. Her long hair hid her eyes, but he could have sworn he saw a tear trickle down her cheek as she rushed to the other side of the bed to retrieve her slacks.  
  
Mouth was fired. Brain planned to hold auditions for a replacement as soon as possible. Brain fumbled about trying to grab the reins on Jareth's lips.  
  
"Sarah-" the king started.  
  
She ignored him and hastily threw on the rest of her clothes, keeping her face turned away. Her shoulders were shaking with her tears and she swept her long hair over them to hide their trembling. She was furious with herself for crying at all. Of course Jareth would need to prove to his minions that he would not accept defeat from someone who had been only a slip of a mortal girl.  
  
As Sarah looked back on their seven days together, all of Jareth's actions seemed coldly, starkly clear. She now understood why he would force her to return to the Underground with him on the whisper of a wish she had made when she hadn't even been conscious. She thought back to his "generous" offer of marriage. The man hadn't batted an eye at the idea of marrying her after only a day in her company. Jareth had also done everything in his power to make it clear to her that HE was the one in control. He had dropped her into an oubliette when she had defied him and had even tried to prevent her from learning about her new magical abilities to the point of physically overpowering her. Everything made a sick, horrible kind of sense to her now. The only time he had offered her any kind of guarantee that she would not live a life of constant terror had been when he had placed a ring on her hand protecting her from his own magic. And he had offered the ring to her only when he had thought she might refuse to marry him after all.  
  
Realizations clicked through Sarah's mind at lightening speed as she surreptitiously wiped her eyes and fought for her composure. It riled her to no end that after everything he had put her through, Jareth had his queen and that she had been forced to sacrifice her own freedom to fill the role. Wait a minute. Jareth had his queen. She was filling the role. She was QUEEN dammit. That had to be worth something.  
  
"Sarah?" Jareth was truly worried now. His stomach started to tie itself in slow, excruciating knots as the silence dragged on and on between them.  
  
Sarah brushed the tears off her face and stood up straighter. Queen she was and so queen she would be.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Are.are you alright?"  
  
Sarah was surprised at the concern in her husband's voice, but chose not to give in to her curiosity. If she started asking herself questions about why he might be concerned for her, those questions would inevitably lead to other questions - like why she would care so much in the first place - that she didn't want to face without at least 200 feet of distance between herself and the man who was still sitting on her bed.  
  
"Of course I'm alright. I'm fine." She didn't quite manage to sound calm, but at least resisted the growing urge to sock Jareth in the jaw.  
  
For the moment.  
  
She shuddered at the thought that her whole abduction and marriage had just been a set-up so that Jareth could prove to the world that he had "conquered" her after she had defeated his labyrinth. She had agreed to the marriage out of desperation and her love for her family. She certainly had NOT intended her marriage to be a public declaration of submission - especially to that infernal Goblin King.  
  
Well, this poor, helpless, CONQUERED maiden had no intention of letting her husband anywhere near her ever again. Although.she thought she might be lonely without some sort of companionship on a daily basis. It really would be nice to have a pet she could keep close by - a dog, or maybe an opossum, or possibly a mink. A mink, yes. Perhaps a lovely golden one with mismatched eyes. She had learned to knit only last year and could keep up her skills by making it little pink sweaters.  
  
With her most aloof and queenly gaze, she turned back to her husband.  
  
Jareth searched her face anxiously, trying to gauge just how badly he had screwed up. He quailed a little as her cool green gaze met his. He couldn't guess what she was thinking, but the icy sweetness in her smile could have frosted a Dairy Queen cake. Apparently he'd screwed up pretty big.  
  
"Well, darling," she oozed, managing to make the endearment sound like slow poison, "I'm a little tired so I think I'll just hop into the bath and then go straight to bed." In another room, far, far away from YOU, she added to herself.  
  
Jareth sensed the danger and was tempted to snatch her straight back into his arms so that they could resolve their differences to his satisfaction, but when he made a move toward Sarah, the sparkle in her eyes was disconcertingly bloodthirsty. She hadn't backed away an inch and was looking at him the same way he would look at a goblin in his tights drawer. Under that gaze, Jareth actually cringed.  
  
Sarah merely snorted in derision and sashayed out the door in the direction of the bathroom.  
  
The goblin king was left splayed across her bed gaping after her.  
  
Oh this was bad.  
  
What to do? He could follow after her, yank her into his arms and show her just how he felt about her. As the thought of doing just that flitted enticingly through his mind, Jareth felt a sinking sensation. Yes, he could easily subdue Sarah while he did whatever he liked, but he couldn't shake the feeling that she would never forgive him if he did. She seemed to have been hurt by his careless words and if that was the case...then she must feel something for him after all. Should he jump for joy or jump off of a bridge now that he had screwed everything up?  
  
Desperation gave him courage and he made his way to the bathroom and knocked.  
  
"Yes?" Her voice sounded muffled, like she was crying.  
  
"Darling, are you alright in there?"  
  
Sarah didn't think Jaws had a habit of attacking people in bathtubs. "I was enjoying a quiet moment TO MYSELF. Thank you."  
  
She wasn't getting rid of him that easily. With a few muttered words, Jareth materialized inside the bathroom. Sarah sat in the tub, head and shoulders rising above a froth of scented bubbles. Yes, her cheeks were wet, but so was everything else. Looking at her eyes, blazing up at him from where she sat, he noticed that they appeared a little red and she had tell-tale splotches on her cheeks. So she had been crying. Jareth felt even more horrible than when he had thrown her into the oubliette. "Sarah...love..." he mumured, moving toward her.  
  
"Don't call me that."  
  
If she had been hissing or screaming at him, he would have been less worried, but her tone was flat and dull, very matter-of-fact, and it send chills through him. He had never seen his Sarah like this before. "I'll call you whatever I like, love. Were my reasons for marrying you such a surprise?"  
  
Sarah sighed. Of course they weren't. When she thought about it, she and Jareth had fought like cats ever since they had been thrown into each other's company again. It was just that somewhere underneath the animosity, during the hours spent navigating foreign diplomacy and family relations together, she had started to feel a connection with the man. It was her own fault that she had imagined that thread of feeling might run both ways. "No, Jareth," she sighed, "your reasons for marrying me were not a surprise. In fact, they make perfect sense. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to continue my bath in peace."  
  
Sarah's bubble cover was dissipating rapidly and that delightful fact did not escape Jareth's notice. "Here, let me wash your back," the king's voice had lowered to a husky rasp. He snatched Sarah's washcloth from her hand and dipping it in the water, gently ran it over her neck and shoulders, leaving a glistening trail of bubbles across her skin. His hands felt so good on her sore muscles, warm and relaxing. She had always been a sucker for a good massage...then she caught herself abruptly. Sarah started to rise out of the water as she felt desire uncoil itself in her belly and start to spread outward through her limbs. Her breasts were tender, nipples erect, and she was already aching with an all-too familiar need. As she started to move away, Jareth caught her shoulders and held her in place.  
  
"My dear, you're so tense. Let me relax you." His fingers were like iron and Sarah knew she didn't have a chance of winning a physical contest between them - especially when she was wet and naked and he was fully clothed down to the boots.  
  
"Jareth, I don't want you to touch me."  
  
Again that flat, frightening tone.  
  
"Shhh..." he whispered, holding her in place by wrapping one arm more completely around her torso while he continued to bathe her gently.  
  
His soft strokes with the cloth over her body were almost more than she could stand. When he shoved up his sleeve so that he could bathe her even further under the water, Sarah had to suppress a moan. In an act of sheer will, Sarah forced herself to focus on the words of their previous conversation. As she recalled the reasons he had given her for why he had wanted to marry her, she felt a blessed numbness steal through her body. She sat very still as her husband continued to wash her, no longer resisting, but no longer responding.  
  
Jareth felt the change and his eyes narrowed. Holding Sarah now required no effort since she was no longer fighting against him, but those little moans and gasps for breath had stopped as well. She simply sat there, looking at him blankly. He dipped lower with the cloth, swirling it over her most intimate places, tracing every curve of her lush body. He sensed her breathing start to quicken again and then slow down to an even, normal rate. What could that little vixen be thinking of to make her icy cold to his attentions?  
  
"Are you finished yet?" she asked him calmly, even sounding a little bored.  
  
"Oh no, my love," he said, pointedly using the endearment, "not even close."  
  
"Well, hurry up. I'm getting cold."  
  
Jareth only grinned wickedly and drew her to her feet. "Anything to oblige," he breathed as he swathed a thick towel around her and commenced to lovingly dry every portion of her body.  
  
As soon as he drew her out of the tub, Sarah made a move to walk away, but he wouldn't allow it. His hands closed over her shoulders yet again and with a sigh, she decided to wait the situation out. By this time her thoughts had made her so cold inside that she was no longer worried about responding to his caresses and was able to endure being toweled off until he slipped her bathrobe over her shoulders. Grateful to finally be covered from his scorching gaze, Sarah again headed toward the door only to be stopped a third time by Jareth as he closed a firm hand above her elbow.  
  
"You're in quite the rush," he said, pulling her tightly to him. One strong arm circled her waist as he reached up with his other hand and released her hair from the clip that had been holding it off of her neck. His fingers snaked through the dark masses, drawing her face closer to his.  
  
Sarah only continued to gaze at him calmly. "I'm tired, Jareth. I'd like to go to bed." And she WAS tired. This whole day had been too much - from drugged peaches wreaking havoc at dinner all the way down to the cold reality of her marriage finally out and on the table.  
  
"Bed? My thoughts exactly," he purred. Sarah felt the air vibrate around her and looked up to find herself in her parents' guest room. Jareth scooped her up in his arms and carried her gently to the bed, feathering kisses over her face and neck. Sarah didn't resist when he laid her down on the bed and slipped the ties of her robe open. Even when his caresses became bolder, she held herself perfectly, coldly still beneath him.  
  
Inside, she seethed with despair and disgust. After everything he had told her about his reasons for marrying her, she still desired him. After all of his efforts to keep her under his power, she had actually thought there could be something more to their marriage than an "arrangement". Oh god, oh god, the loneliness she felt as she looked at the facts was almost overwhelming.  
  
Jareth had removed his shirt and was currently molding himself to her unresisting form. Even as he felt the evidence of his need straining against his jeans, the sense that he had done irreparable damage this night grew inside his gut like nausea. The feeling only made him redouble his efforts. More than anything he had to be close to Sarah, to crush her against him and drink her in. Even as he started to slide his jeans off, he kept one arm firmly around his wife. He was gripped with the irrational fear that if he fully released her for even an instant, she would vanish in front of his eyes.  
  
Sarah, by contrast, was increasingly possessed with the knowledge that she DID NOT want Jareth touching her. It was with every ounce of will that she suppressed the urge to recoil as he pressed himself even closer to her body. She knew that if she struggled, she would only prolong the moment and he would probably enjoy the fight. There was no way she was strong enough to fling her husband away from her, although she WANTED it. As the thought of Jareth flying off of her and across the room became clearer and clearer, Sarah felt a force building deep inside, bubbling toward the surface in sharp little jolts. The desire to shove him away seemed to feed off the energy simmering right beneath her skin, coiling on itself until it felt almost palpable, like an incredibly strong and angry hand.  
  
Seconds later, Jareth was still staring up at the ceiling from his position on the floor some feet away. Whatever that was had knocked the wind out of him and he needed a moment to recover. Slowly, he raised himself up to look dazedly at his wife, still perched on the bed.  
  
Her face registered astonishment, then pleasure, before settling into a chilling look of determination.  
  
"Jareth," she said slowly, as if speaking to his stupidest goblin, "Don't. Touch. Me."  
  
He sat there for a moment, opening and closing his mouth in shock. Then anger set in. He could never hurt his Sarah, but this kind of defiance was absolutely unacceptable. "That, my dear, was most unwise," he hissed. Without ceremony, he lunged for her and was promptly tossed back onto his half-naked butt by the same invisible force. Instantly he conjured a crystal set with an entrapment spell and flung it at his wife. For a moment, her eyes widened in fear and she threw up her hands to protect her head only to hear the crystal shatter in front of her and fall over the bed in harmless bits of glitter. The ring on her hand was so hot it was practically burning her finger.  
  
So he WAS telling me the truth about that ring! she thought, suddenly confused. If he had married her only to prove his dominance over her, then why risk throwing it away by giving her something like that? It's true that he had been worried she would refuse to marry him after that night she had spent in his oubliette, but even so, she knew enough about his magic by now to guess that he could easily have worked around the situation without the risk of giving up his control.  
  
The king muttered a curse. Damn that ring.  
  
Jareth took advantage of Sarah's confusion to lunge at her for a second time. This time, she was only able to hold him at bay by a few inches and he could tell she was getting tired. His wife might be immensely powerful, but she was still raw and inexperienced in the use of magic. Judging from the sweat that now beaded her forehead, he didn't think she could hold him off much longer. Jareth shoved himself relentlessly against Sarah's rapidly weakening magic. Their eyes locked for one instant in heated combat before all the color drained from Sarah's face and Jareth fell forward on top of her. He had yanked her toward him and halfway up off the bed before realizing that her limpness was more than a lack of resistance. She had fainted dead away. His hands gentled and his eyes clouded over with concern as he beheld his alarmingly pale wife, lying unmoving in his arms.  
  
In an instant, he cradled her tenderly against his chest and moved so that he could pull the covers over both of them. He conjured a glass of water and placed it on the bedside table in case she was thirsty when she awoke. He remembered when he had first learned to control his magical talents. There had definitely been an embarrassing time or two when he had knocked himself unconscious with the strain. Of course his brother Damien had always been by his side to splash a little water on his face - or draw a moustache and warts on him with his quill and ink while he was out cold. Ah the joys of childhood.  
  
As he gazed down at Sarah he was at a loss as to what to do next. In a single night, he had managed to ruin all of the hard work he had put in over - well, YEARS if you counted the wishing-the-brother-away incident - to win his wife's heart. Perhaps it was time to tell her how he really felt about her...But did he dare allow himself to be that vulnerable? If his subjects saw that he was in love with his queen, would he then appear weaker before them? She was his now, but everyone in his kingdom had assumed that he had drawn her to his side by the power of his will. He supposed that tying her up and kidnapping her to the Underground would still fall within the "power of his will" parameters, but it was a lot less compelling than the story of "how she could not resist him and had practically begged to be his wife so that she could remain at his side".  
  
Sheesh. Who was he kidding? He couldn't even throw a line like that over on Ludo.  
  
He let out a heavy sigh and then felt something flutter against his chest. Green eyes slowly opened, looking bemusedly into his. Sarah looked so innocent and lovely in his arms that it was physically painful to keep himself from kissing her.  
  
Kissing Jareth was the last thing on Sarah's mind. For a moment, she stared at him, confused as to where she was and then realization swept through her as she tried to jerk herself out of his embrace.  
  
"Go. Get out." Her tone was forceful, but she couldn't manage to fight him with more than the strength of a kitten.  
  
"Sarah, I'm not leaving this room AND - " he barked as with some effort, she swept herself off the bed and toward the door "I can assure you that neither are you."  
  
With that, the lock clicked on the door with unusual force. Sarah reached to unfasten the latch and jumped back as if she had been burned.  
  
"It won't open - even if you do decide to try and burn your hand off."  
  
She turned back to her husband, eyes glittering dangerously.  
  
"Fine. I'll stay. I'm exhausted and the bed in this room is good enough for me - but I won't be sharing it with you."  
  
"My queen, I don't think you have much choice in the matter," Jareth said silkily, crawling over the bed toward her like a large, dangerous feline creature on the prowl.  
  
Sarah leapt to the side and at the same time felt another rush of power tingling from her chest down into her fingertips - weaker than the first, but still there. She felt the release of energy snap through her body and out the palms of her hands and once again, Jareth was tossed away from her and back onto the pillows.  
  
"I wouldn't do that again if I were you." The king's voice was soft but the look on his face was truly frightening.  
  
Without thinking, Sarah darted toward the window. Heaven knows she had snuck out once in awhile as a teenager and she knew the drop wouldn't be that bad. All she wanted in that moment was to put as much distance as possible between herself and the enraged Goblin King who was pursuing her. Just as she reached the glass, the king materialized in front of her and wrapped his arms around her like a cruel vise. She knew she was too weak from her last blast of magic to struggle much and instead turned her focus inward, searching for any power that might be left that she could use to defend herself.  
  
When Jareth saw the look of abject terror on his wife's face, he felt his anger crack. This was all wrong. This was NOT what he wanted - the woman he loved so frightened of him that she would try to jump out a window to escape him. He felt another, pathetically weak trickle of power well up inside Sarah and blocked her latest attempt to knock him over with the flick of a wrist.  
  
Defeated, she sagged in his arms and was shocked when his grip loosened and he guided her gently over to the bed. She had expected him to retaliate against her - or at least to throw her into some magical cage for the night. Instead, he lifted her onto the bed and fluffed the pillows. She tried to pull away as he removed the robe she had hastily snatched around herself during their battle, but he merely slipped it from her shoulders and then slid her exhausted body between the cool sheets and tucked them in around her.  
  
She felt Jareth's weight on the bed and tensed, waiting for him to take advantage of her drained state to do whatever he pleased with her. Instead, he stroked her long hair back from her face and pressed his lips to her forehead.  
  
"Oh, Sarah," he whispered, "I'm so, so sorry. I would never hurt you, love. Please believe that."  
  
Confused and still angry, Sarah made no reply. Jareth just looked at her sadly for a minute, and then picked up one of the pillows on the bed and headed for the dresser on the opposite side of the room. He rummaged in the drawers for a minute or two until he came up with an extra blanket. Sarah flinched as he walked back toward her, but instead of settling next to her in the bed, he continued past her to an armchair in the corner where he curled up with the pillow and blanket.  
  
"Goodnight, Sarah," he said, looking oddly hopeful that she might reply.  
  
Sarah again said nothing and merely stared at him in disbelief.  
  
Jareth sighed and shifted deeper into the cushioning on the armchair. It wasn't as comfortable as a bed, but he'd slept in worse places. Not that he thought he would sleep much tonight. The battle he had just fought with his wife kept playing itself over and over in his mind. Things had seemed to be improving between them until he had told her his reasons for marrying her. Why, oh why, couldn't he have simply told her the truth?  
  
He tried to put himself in her place in the hope that if he could see her side, he might know better what to do. Being high king of the Underground, this was no easy task for Jareth. He had spent a lifetime (that by now had spanned hundreds of years) having others bow and scrape to please HIS whims. The thought of pleasing another hadn't even crossed his head until he had fallen in love with Sarah. Speaking of Sarah, if she hadn't felt much for him, then the reasons he had given her might have pricked her pride, but surely not so much that she would throw him out of her bed. But if she had started to put her animosity aside.if she DID care for him.  
  
His stomach flipped as the possible consequences of what he had told her started to sink in. When he looked at his own behavior, he was torn. He was king. He had every right to rule all of his subjects in the most absolute sense of the word -even Sarah. But ruling Sarah had started to feel all wrong. He wasn't certain when the first hint of doubt had started to creep into his mind - maybe the day they had argued over her coronation ceremony and she had acquiesced to his wishes, but so sadly. The look in her eyes had torn him apart. He couldn't bear the thought of her being utterly miserable and him having been the source of her unhappiness.  
  
His Sarah wasn't a woman who had ever bowed easily to authority. He even thought over her constant defiance with some pride. Imagine - defeating his labyrinth while she was still a child! Running off into the middle of the night to take her magical powers by the horns! Facing all of Fae society as its queen when she had been in the Underground no more than a few days! What a woman!  
  
How must that woman feel about all that had passed between them? His heart sank as he realized that he had basically told her that her marriage to him declared her open submission to his will. Not that he would see that as a bad thing.He caught himself. SARAH would see submission to him as an unimaginable horror. Oh gods.  
  
He tried to appear indifferent, but couldn't keep his worry from his features as he gazed at Sarah, where she lay on the bed. He didn't think she was sleeping yet either, but thought it might be best to let this situation alone for a little while - at least until morning. Even if he told her the truth now, he wasn't certain that she would believe it. Somehow he had to PROVE his feelings to this extraordinary, amazing woman he had married.  
  
But how? 


	21. Honey, this ain't no dream

Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything from "Labyrinth". At this point I am not even sure that I would want to unless relationship counseling was involved.  
  
Author's Note: Almost all of you are telling me what a clueless jerk Jareth is. Well, okay, yeah, he is. I don't think that centuries of goblin-ruling would be all that great for anyone's interpersonal skills. Don't worry. He's not a lost cause, but hey, nothing good comes easy, right?  
  
Chapter 21  
  
Jareth was certain that his neck would never recover and that he would be known for the rest of his living days as "that king with his head cocked at a funny angle". Slowly, he creaked his body out of the chair he had been uncomfortably wedged into for the past eight hours.  
  
He gazed across the room and flinched at the blazing, emerald eyes that met his. Sarah was sitting on the edge of the bed fully dressed, staring at him like a hawk homing in on a bunny rabbit.  
  
"Good morning, love," he said a trifle uncertainly. He noticed the slant of the light through the windows with surprise. His wife was usually a very early riser. "Did you sleep well? I'm accustomed to finding you long gone and running the kingdom by this hour," he chuckled, using banter to mask his concern.  
  
"Burning my hand off isn't my idea of a brilliant start to the morning," she replied coolly.  
  
Of course! Jareth could have smacked his forehead in frustration. The door! He'd left that locking spell on it so Sarah would have been unable to leave unless he allowed it. How could he have been such an idiot?! Instantly, he waved his hand and removed the spell.  
  
A thought suddenly occurred to him.  
  
"Did you?" he asked. "Burn your hand?"  
  
Irritated, Sarah held up fingers that by now had blistered. She had forgotten all about the spell on the door and had tried to leave the room as soon as she had awakened. The burn had brought tears to her eyes, but she hadn't wanted to wake Jareth up. After last night, burned fingers didn't seem like much compared to dealing with him.  
  
Jareth's face darkened with concern as he took her hand in his own. He put so much magic into his healing spell that Sarah felt her skin instantly clear, her muscles tone and her hair exude extra body and shine.  
  
"Love, why didn't you wake me?" he murmured stroking her dark locks back from her face.  
  
"You planned to keep me trapped in here even if it meant burning me. What point would there be in waking you?" Her quiet tone was far more frightening to him than screaming or bitterness.  
  
"Sarah! You are my wife and my queen! I could never, ever hurt you or allow any harm to come to you! EVER. I truly had forgotten about that spell on the lock and-" Jareth tried to pull her to him as she spoke, but Sarah sidestepped his embrace.  
  
"I suppose being married to you has a few advantages," she replied softly, holding up her engagement ring, which now looked a little charred from the blasts of magic it had endured the night before. With that, she slipped past him and out the door.  
  
Well crap. Would it help things if he banged his head against the wall repeatedly for an hour or two?  
  
Sarah made her way downstairs and followed the enticing aroma of fresh coffee into the kitchen. Karen looked up from where she was sitting skimming over the morning paper. She didn't look as if she had slept at all last night; but even though her eyes had dark circles around them, they were glowing. She looked exhausted and ten years younger all at once.  
  
Sarah wasn't about to ask and prayed that Karen wouldn't tell. There were some things she just didn't want to imagine first thing in the morning.  
  
Karen leapt up to hug Sarah with a radiant smile. "Darling, did you sleep okay? Let me pour you some coffee. Oh-" (her exclamation punctuated with a warm hug) "it's SO good to have you home!"  
  
Sarah returned Karen's hug, but she couldn't quite match her stepmother's radiant expression.  
  
"Sarah - what's wrong? Are you feeling well?"  
  
"I'm fine, Karen, really," Sarah tried to assure her.  
  
Karen narrowed her eyes. "Hmmm. Is that Jareth behaving himself and taking proper care of you?"  
  
"He's still upstairs. I'm sure he'll be down any minute." Sarah said, trying to duck the question and warn Karen at the same time.  
  
Karen glanced sharply in the direction of the staircase and lowered her voice, looking at Sarah intently. "Honey, I'm serious. Are you all right? Did the two of you have an argument or something? You know I think Jareth seems like a very nice man who's madly in love with you, but we still don't know him very well and if he's done anything to hurt you-"  
  
Sarah snorted as soon as the words "madly in love" were out of Karen's mouth.  
  
"So you did have a fight?" said Karen, never missing a detail as usual.  
  
"Yes, we did," Sarah admitted. She wanted so badly to throw herself into her stepmother's arms and tell her everything, but how on earth could she expect Karen to believe her?  
  
"Sarah, it's obvious to me that the two of you love each other, but you did rush into things awfully quickly. Come sit down and tell me about it."  
  
Sarah glanced again toward the stairs. Jareth would be down any minute, but she really did need someone to talk to.  
  
"Karen.I think Jareth and I had different ideas of what our marriage would be like."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
".and it's been.exhausting.to live up to each other's expectations."  
  
"Uh huh? How do you see your expectations as differing?" Karen queried, trying as hard as she could to stay neutral and diplomatic. Jareth may be the most seductively handsome man she had ever encountered, but if he hurt her baby girl, she would throw him out on his ear without even blinking.  
  
"I think Jareth and I are both people who like to 'run the show' and when we have a difference of opinion.well, I guess neither one of us is used to including another person in all of our decisions." Sarah was also struggling to be extremely gentle in her phrasing. Of course she wasn't telling Karen the half of it, but she didn't see how that would help her situation at the moment. She was at odds with Jareth, but leaving her marriage was NOT an option. She had a feeling that he would probably insist on accompanying her on most of her excursions Aboveground and did not want to deal with animosity between her family and her husband every time she visited home.  
  
"Hmmm.what you're talking about is something a lot of married couples go through - especially in the beginning." Karen looked at Sarah for a long moment and then sighed. "Marriage is harder than anyone ever tells you it will be. When you love someone as much as you love Jareth, the pain that always seems to come with a love like that - well, it's just unreal sometimes! Your father and I rarely argue, but whenever we do, it always seems like so much more than an argument - and nothing feels right until we've worked through the problem. I won't tell you that this issue will be an easy one to overcome, but the two of you seem to care for each other so much that I think you'll be able to work through it if you're patient. Have you talked to him about it?"  
  
Sarah wanted to scream. How could she tell Karen that the words "love" and "care" had no place in her relationship with Jareth?  
  
Jareth chose that moment to appear in the doorway, looking tired but sufficiently cheery to pass muster.  
  
He may have seemed relaxed, but his heart was actually in his throat. Thanks to his magic, he had managed to catch at least the second half of the conversation. Karen's words echoed in his mind "when you love someone as much as you love Jareth", "the two of you seem to care for each other so much". Karen was someone who KNEW Sarah, someone who would have spent enough time with her to have a sense of her feelings. His wife hadn't specifically agreed with anything Karen had said, but she hadn't told Karen that she was wrong either.  
  
If there was hope, Jareth planned to cling to it for dear life. Dammit, if he had managed to govern an unruly lot of goblins for over three hundred years, he was certainly capable of making Sarah understand his love for her.  
  
Grinning nonchalantly, he poured two cups of coffee and set one down in front of Sarah, while topping Karen's cup off from the pot.  
  
Karen couldn't resist melting a little under his sunny smile. "Thank you, Jareth," she beamed.  
  
All too aware of the devastating effect one of his smiles could have on the female sex, Jareth flashed another dazzling grin at Karen and asked her if there was anything he could do to help with breakfast.  
  
Disgusted, Sarah forced a smile and attempted to rise from her seat, but Jareth gently pushed her back down.  
  
"No, no! You cooked dinner for all of us last night! Give me a chance to impress your family! Let me cook breakfast!"  
  
Sarah's eyes grew enormous. Jareth could COOK?!  
  
Karen's face lit up completely at his suggestion. "Jareth! How incredibly thoughtful of you! Just tell me what kinds of pans you'd like to use and I'll show you where I keep them."  
  
"Hmm.the only kinds of pans I avoid are iron ones. I hate the way iron tinges the flavor of food," Jareth said, authoritatively rummaging through Karen's cupboards.  
  
"Does it?" said Karen, completely fascinated.  
  
Moments later, the delicious aroma of eggs and bacon was wafting through the house. Toby had joined them in the kitchen and was eagerly running the waffle press under Jareth's supervision. Jareth himself felt quite content to be part of the little domestic scene. Most of his previous cooking experience had involved roasting fat rabbits over makeshift spits in the forest whenever he had gone out with a hunting party. However, his nursemaid had insisted that he and Damien learn a few practical skills in an actual kitchen. Ordinarily, he would have scoffed at the idea of preparing a meal himself while he was staying at home (that was, after all, what servants were for), but now he was grateful that he could show Sarah and her family a small measure of how much he cared by cooking for them. Cooking was even.fun. Happily, he started to sing to himself as he flipped the eggs.  
  
Karen smiled in admiration from her seat at the kitchen table. "Jareth, Sarah hadn't told us that you could sing. You have a wonderful voice."  
  
Toby, on the other hand, had gone stock-still and was staring at the Goblin King with a mixture of wonder and disbelief. Jareth looked over to check the progress on the waffle situation and briefly met Toby's eyes. The boy suppressed a gasp and went white as a sheet.  
  
"Toby," Sarah asked, brow furrowed, "are you okay?"  
  
"Um.yeah. Sarah, I actually had something I was working on that I just remembered I wanted to show you. Uh.Jareth.is it okay if I show Sarah my.my.picture, and then come right back?"  
  
The king smiled benevolently at the boy and nodded.  
  
Toby ran over to Sarah and practically dragged her from the room only to hear Jareth's voice call after him, "Why don't you bring your picture down so all of us can see it?"  
  
"Uh - sure! That is, if Sarah thinks it's good enough," Toby called back, heart racing.  
  
"Toby, what on earth is going on? Are you alright?" Sarah hissed as he pulled her up the stairs.  
  
Toby only put his finger to his lips in response and tugged her toward his room. Once they were inside, Toby shut the door and locked it.  
  
Sarah sat down on his bed and looked at him piercingly. "You don't really have a picture to show me do you?" she said softly.  
  
Her brother mutely shook his head and looked down. Sarah was shocked to see him trembling and pulled him into her arms just like she had when he was still a little boy. "Tell me what's going on," she said, even more taken aback when he actually clung to her. Toby had resisted being hugged ever since he turned twelve and decided that he was "too grown up for mushy stuff".  
  
"I don't know how to make you believe me. I don't know if I believe it." His voice was barely a whisper.  
  
Then Sarah knew. Oh god.  
  
"Try me," she said, making an effort to appear calm.  
  
"Remember that dream I told you I had when I was really little - about all the goblins and this weird guy who kept singing to me?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Jareth is the same guy."  
  
"Okay."  
  
"In my dream, you were there."  
  
"I remember you telling me about that."  
  
"Sarah," Toby swallowed. "That wasn't a dream was it?"  
  
Oh god.  
  
"Toby, can you keep a really important secret?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"You're right. You weren't dreaming."  
  
It was Toby's turn to think 'oh god' for awhile.  
  
After nearly a minute of silence, Toby looked at Sarah. "You seemed really scared of the man in my dream - well, I mean, wherever that was since I wasn't dreaming."  
  
"I guess I was pretty scared."  
  
"Did he hurt you?"  
  
"No."  
  
"But you were scared."  
  
She nodded, "Yeah."  
  
"Sarah, who is he?"  
  
Oh god (again).  
  
"The King of the Goblins."  
  
"Oh."  
  
Brother and sister sat side-by-side simply holding each other for a few minutes.  
  
"Toby, you have to find a picture to take downstairs." By now, Jareth and Karen would be wondering if they had disappeared.  
  
He raised his head and looked at her with determined eyes. "Only if you tell me everything that's really happened."  
  
"It's a deal," Sarah agreed. Toby obviously recalled enough of his experience in the labyrinth that lying would be pointless. She was a little worried because the last thing she wanted to do was hurt or confuse her younger brother. And if she told him how she had really come to be married to Jareth.  
  
Toby got up and rummaged through a few drawers until he came up with a notebook full of comic book-style sketches, many of which looked like the goblins in Jareth's castle.  
  
Sarah sighed. "I see you do remember quite a bit." Reluctantly, she grinned. She couldn't help but be proud of her brother's artistic abilities. "I'll take you out for pizza this afternoon - just you and me."  
  
"Okay," he flashed her a smile. Toby still looked shaken, but he seemed to have pulled himself together as well as could be expected.  
  
They made their way downstairs to join Jareth and Karen in the kitchen. Richard had followed the scent of Jareth's cooking and was already devouring a stack of waffles while Jareth served Karen a few slices of bacon. The king smiled when he saw Sarah and Toby enter the room and immediately presented them each with a plateful of waffles, eggs, and bacon. Sarah eyed the food with suspicion but couldn't think of a reasonable excuse not to eat it. She took a timid bite of her waffle and was surprised by how delicious it was.  
  
"Mmm!" she exclaimed, bringing another smug smile to Jareth's lips. If Jareth couldn't tell her how he felt, then he would have to show her at every opportunity.  
  
"And where is this picture you'd like to show us, my young man?" asked Jareth, affectionately ruffling Toby's hair.  
  
"It's actually more than one picture," Toby replied, handing Jareth his notebook  
  
When Jareth saw Toby's drawings his eyebrows shot up in surprise. "These are really quite good!" he exclaimed. "Do you mind if I borrow the whole notebook for a little so that I can look at all of your drawings?"  
  
Toby had been watching the Goblin King's reaction intently and nodded his permission. He was still in quiet turmoil from Sarah's revelation that yes, goblins really were real and that somehow the two of them had actually spent time among them. He was dying to learn why she had decided to marry Jareth. Sarah's complete lack of dating life had been a concern of his mother's for some time and he was curious about what would make her change her mind after so many years - especially since he foggily remembered her being so afraid of Jareth before. Ordinarily, he wouldn't have cared much about any of it, but having a real-live Goblin King for a brother-in-law - WOW!  
  
Jareth was also deep in thought. Now that he had seen Toby's drawings, he wished to heaven that he could have listened in on Sarah's conversation with Toby. The boy remembered much more of the thirteen hours he had spent Underground than Jareth had expected. He would have to ask Sarah if Toby believed his memories were real since most humans who had traveled to the Underground remembered the experience as no more than a dream. Not the case with Sarah, but then she was also the first mortal ever to have defeated his labyrinth.  
  
Jareth kept a watchful eye on Sarah, but her expression revealed nothing. In fact, she seemed to be completely absorbed in her breakfast. Jareth puffed up a little in pride at his cooking and decided to ingratiate himself further with Karen by washing all the dishes.  
  
As he had predicted, Karen was thrilled at his little show of domesticity. Her next remarks caught him unaware.  
  
"Jareth, since you are a new member of our little family, I thought you might enjoy looking at some of our family photos. You and Sarah probably haven't had the chance to go over our family history much and so I've brought a few old picture albums down from the attic in case you were interested."  
  
Jareth WAS interested. While he had watched a great deal of Sarah's activities through his crystals ever since she had escaped his power and returned Aboveground, he knew little of what her life had been like before she had turned fifteen. Plus photographs were an invention that was foreign to the Underground. Jareth never ceased to be amazed by how REAL they looked. These mortals might be powerless and short-lived, but they certainly weren't stupid.  
  
Sarah groaned, "Kar-en! Don't make him look at all that stuff. You'll only bore him to tears!"  
  
"Not at all!" Jareth interjected. "Show me EVERYTHING you've got!  
  
Deliriously happy to have such a willing victim, Karen trotted out nearly six boxes full of photo albums.  
  
Sarah was only too happy to have an excuse to leave. "Karen, I actually promised Toby I'd take him to the mall today. We thought we'd stop there and have pizza for lunch." Karen looked at Sarah with a sigh that was only mildly disappointed. She loved having her stepdaughter at home, but she would be able to tell Jareth much more embarrassing stories about Sarah's childhood if Sarah wasn't there to protest.  
  
Jareth was torn. After the events of last night, he was loathe to allow Sarah out of his sight for even so much as a second and he would be unable to watch her in one of his crystals if he was conversing with Karen over the family photo books. That said, he knew that Karen would hold nothing back from him as long as Sarah wasn't there to keep her stories in check. Reluctantly, he decided not to object to the afternoon outing. If she wasn't back at the Williams' home by three o'clock, he would find her himself and bring her back by any means necessary.  
  
"All right then," said Karen. "I suppose you and Toby haven't had much time to visit with each other. Can you pick up a few things for me while you're out?"  
  
"Sure!" Sarah readily agreed.  
  
Within twenty minutes, she and Toby were driving down the road toward the community mall.  
  
"Sarah, do we have to go the mall? I want to go somewhere we can talk." Toby looked at her with pleading eyes.  
  
"Mmm.good point. We could always go to the park. It's large enough that we could probably find a nice spot to ourselves."  
  
Sarah pulled the car into the park and after a few minutes of walking, she and Toby found a spot under some trees, very near the place she had once loved to rehearse her lines in her dress-up costumes.  
  
"Sarah, what happened - when I was little? I really want to know everything. I thought all that goblin stuff was a dream, but now I KNOW it's not. I don't want you to skip over anything. Promise?"  
  
Sarah looked at him sadly. She didn't want to lie to Toby, but the things she had to say were so painful.  
  
"I promise. Toby, please understand that I am truly, deeply ashamed of what I'm about to tell you and that I love you no matter what."  
  
Toby's eyes widened and she knew she had his full attention. With a deep sigh, she started at the beginning. They sat under the trees talking quietly for more than an hour. Sarah related her entire adventure in the labyrinth. She tried to be as fair as she could be to Jareth since the king was now her husband, but she left nothing out. She had promised to tell Toby the truth and wanted to live up to his trust in her. Toby listened with rapt wonder, only interrupting once in awhile to ask a question. By the time Sarah had finished, the sun was high in the sky. She supposed it was close to lunchtime, but neither she nor Toby felt very hungry.  
  
Toby reached out to her and wrapped her up in a giant bear hug. "You don't have anything to be ashamed of, Sarah. You were mad. You had no idea those words would do anything. You risked your life to come and get me. I couldn't ask for a better big sister." He looked up when he felt something fall on his head and was shocked to see Sarah crying. "Sarah, don't cry! It's okay! I'm here! I'm NOT a goblin and that's all because of you!"  
  
"Toby," she sniffled, "I'm just so sorry. I love you so much !"  
  
Toby looked down, a little embarrassed. Any second he was going to cry too and he didn't want to be a big sissy in front of his sister.  
  
"So you still haven't told me everything," he prodded. If you beat Jareth and got me home safely, then how did the two of you end up getting married? Did you love him the whole time?"  
  
THAT was an interesting question. Sarah bravely decided to dodge it.  
  
"I accidentally wished myself back under Jareth's power and he took me to the Underground."  
  
"How did you do THAT?" asked Toby, incredulous. The Sarah he knew was not a careless person. In fact, she was so organized that most people even thought she was a little weird.  
  
"I guess I was talking in my sleep and I said something stupid, but I SAID it and so Jareth had the power to take me back to the Underground with him."  
  
"Did you want to go?" Toby's brow furrowed remembering how the police had told the family that her apartment looked like it had been torn apart in some kind of struggle.  
  
"Not really."  
  
"Then how did he get you to marry him?"  
  
"That gets kind of complicated and it's story I should tell you on another day. I want you to be VERY nice to Jareth now. He doesn't know how much you remember and it's really important to me that we not upset Dad and Karen. Jareth and I are going to be coming back here a lot to visit you guys and I don't want there to be any problems - OKAY?"  
  
Toby nodded. The last thing he needed was his mom packing him off to the looney bin or sending him to the guidance counselor or something. He was still worried about his sister though.  
  
"Sarah.are you still scared of Jareth?"  
  
"Of course not!" She wasn't really. Well, maybe a little.  
  
"I mean, he's nice to you now, right?"  
  
Jareth had a few lessons in humility coming his way, but she thought that he had tried to treat her well - at least to the best of his ability and understanding.  
  
"Yeah, Toby. He's not so bad."  
  
"So you're QUEEN of the goblins now, right?"  
  
She had to chuckle at that. "I guess so," she purred, sounding 'oh-so- casual' and bored.  
  
"So I get to visit you, right?"  
  
No. Oh no. Jareth was NOT pulling Toby into the Underground if she had any say in the matter. Who knew if he would release her brother once he was under his power?  
  
"Well.we'll see. Give it a little time. Jareth and I are still settling in."  
  
"Okay."  
  
Fine. Then he would have to ask Jareth if he could visit instead.  
  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Meanwhile, Jareth, Karen, and Richard were pouring over the family photographs together. Sarah's parents liked Jareth more and more as their hours together wore on. He was intensely interested in their family, doted on their daughter and wanted to know every detail about her childhood.  
  
Karen passed Jareth an older looking album with a photo on the cover of a very young Sarah in the arms of a beautiful dark-haired woman.  
  
"And who is this?" asked Jareth, confused. The woman clearly wasn't Karen, but was still holding Sarah the way a mother would hold her child.  
  
"Ah," said Richard. "That's Linda, Sarah's biological mother. I would say that everything about my marriage to her was a mistake except that, thanks to my relationship with her, I have Sarah as a daughter, so I would never want to take anything back. She left our family when Sarah was ten."  
  
Jareth frowned. How anyone could abandon that gorgeous child was incomprehensible to him. He might turn children into goblins, but in their goblin state, they retained many of their childlike characteristics. Jareth was what he was, but essentially, he loved children. A person had to love children if that person planned to deal with goblins on a regular basis. They were, after all, startlingly similar.  
  
"She didn't tell you about Linda?" Richard asked, surprised.  
  
"No, she didn't, and from what you've mentioned about that situation, I can see how she might not wish to think about it." Jareth was still disturbed. He HADN'T known about Linda. If he didn't know about Sarah's real mother, what else was she hiding from him? Now that he knew how little she must have meant to her mother, he could see why she might not realize just how much she meant to him. He hoped that he could convince Sarah to trust him, to tell him about her life. More than ever, he wanted to understand the woman he had married.  
  
Speaking of the woman he had married, where was she? He surreptitiously glanced at the clock over the mantle and noticed that the time was already 2:30. He would find an excuse to leave the house and fetch her back immediately if she didn't return soon.  
  
Just then, the door opened and Sarah and Toby entered the room.  
  
"You're STILL looking at those pictures?" Sarah gasped incredulously.  
  
Jareth grinned. "I think this one would have to one of my favorites," he said, holding up a picture of a six-year-old Sarah in an oversize tutu with a makeshift crown fashioned out of tinfoil on her head. She had "borrowed" some of her mother's lipstick and her mouth was smeared with a sloppy red mess that made her look like she had been eating pizza or playing "vampire" with her dolls.  
  
Sarah dropped her head into her hands. Clearly she would not be left with even so much as a scrap of her dignity.  
  
Jareth laughed warmly and drew her into his arms for a hug. "You made a lovely queen then and an even lovelier one now," he murmured against her hair.  
  
"Queen?" asked Richard.  
  
"Of my heart, of course!" Jareth caught himself. How could he ever have been so careless as to let that slip? This "regular Aboveground couple" charade might be more difficult to pull off than he had first thought.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Toby smiling knowingly. Had Sarah told that lad the truth about their marriage? He was about to find an excuse to drag Sarah into another room and wring the truth from her when Toby interrupted his thoughts.  
  
"So how'd you like my drawings, Uncle Jar?"  
  
Uncle Jar. The king supposed he should be offended, but he rather liked the new title.  
  
"I like them very much, Toby. Do you have any more drawings that you would like to show me?"  
  
"Sure! Come up to my room. I have a ton of them!" Toby dragged Jareth by the wrist until they were inside his bedroom. Checking into the hallway, Toby whispered to Jareth "I'll show you my drawings, but I want you to promise me that you'll take me back to the Underground with you."  
  
So Sarah had told him everything.  
  
"Toby-" Jareth was just about to say 'let me discuss this with your sister' but he was interrupted by Sarah's icy voice from the doorway.  
  
"Jareth, we need to talk for a minute."  
  
Jareth cast Toby a mocking smile. "I'm sure I can grant your wish," he said, before sweeping out of the room with Sarah.  
  
As soon as Jareth and Sarah were behind the closed guest room door, she unleashed the fury that she had been holding in check.  
  
"Jareth, if you think for even one instant that you are spiriting my brother back to the Underground, I'll-"  
  
"You'll what?" Jareth interrupted in a bored tone that belied his seething anger. As king, he had no intention of tolerating threats of any kind.  
  
"Let's just say that there will be hell to pay for it, your MAJESTY," she bit out. "I may be no more than a political pawn to you, but if you even so much as THINK about dragging my family into your little games -"  
  
Jareth's sudden grip on her shoulders was so tight that she was left momentarily breathless. If the strength of his hands hadn't squeezed the breath out of her, the look on his face certainly would have. He looked pale and stricken. He opened his mouth and for a moment, no words came out. Sarah stared at him in wonder. She had never seen her husband at such a loss.  
  
Finally Jareth found his voice, "Sarah.love.is that truly what you think?"  
  
"That you would draw my family into your political games? Jareth, what else can I think? You certainly didn't hesitate to kidnap me!" Finding her strength, she tried to twist away from him, but he only closed his arms around her tightly, ruthlessly quelling any attempts on her part to escape.  
  
"That wasn't what I asked you, Sarah. Do you truly believe that you are no more than a pawn?"  
  
She stopped struggling and turned her head up so that she could see his eyes. "Jareth, you explained my position in your life to me in detail only last night. I may be trapped under your power forever, but I will do ANYTHING to keep my family out of this - do you understand?"  
  
Trapped under his power? No more than a pawn? Jareth supposed that he shouldn't be surprised after everything he had told her the night before. He had told her the truth - sort of. There were all kinds of political advantages to their marriage, but he never could have married her, never would have acted so desperately in abducting her, if she hadn't owned him heart and soul.  
  
"Sarah," he breathed, "last night your questions took me by surprise. I had thought my reasons for wanting you by my side had been obvious from the start and so I merely pointed out the ones that you might not already have been aware of." A little voice in his mind was calling him a complete coward for not flatly telling her his feelings. He mentally dropped the little voice into the Bog and buried his face in Sarah's hair.  
  
Sarah was once again utterly confused. Only last night, Jareth had calmly reasoned away any possibility that he might harbor some emotion for her and then today he was holding her so tightly she could hardly breathe and acting shocked that she had thought he considered her no more than a political trophy. And if he did see her as more than a possession, why did he insist on controlling her at every turn? Why didn't he embrace her as his love and his equal? Why, oh why, did she have to care so much?  
  
Sarah lifted her face again so that she could look at him. For one second, she thought she saw tears gleaming in the corners of Jareth's eyes, but he closed them and covered her mouth with his before she could be certain. She wanted to argue, but he slipped his tongue between her lips, suppressing any protest she might have made. As he explored her sweetness with his lips, she felt herself yielding to him and melting as he held her. Gradually, Jareth's arms eased from a restraint into an embrace and Sarah's hands tangled in his soft, golden hair as she returned his kisses with passion. Her better judgment screamed against it, but she could listen to her better judgment later.  
  
Just then a voice piped up from the doorway, "Does this mean I get to go back with you?"  
  
Sarah shoved away from Jareth with a gasp. "Toby! What are you doing here? How long have you been spying on us?"  
  
Toby's instant blush was her answer.  
  
"No! You most certainly will NOT be coming back with us." Sarah's words must have come out a little more forcefully than she had intended because her little brother looked completely crushed.  
  
"Now, darling," cooed Jareth from a few feet away, "why be so hasty? Toby clearly remembers enough of his previous visit to the Underground that he'd like to come back and stay with us for a little - wouldn't you Toby?" Jareth smiled disarmingly and was gratified by an eager nod from the boy in front of him.  
  
"Jareth - NO!!" Sarah threw herself between Jareth and her younger brother. "He doesn't know what he's saying!"  
  
"I think he does, love," purred the king, "besides, I'm certain that your parents would approve of a well-supervised visit to .ah.'New York City'."  
  
Sarah was furious with herself for her own stupidity. Jareth had only started kissing her to convince her to let him take Toby. NEVER would she allow that.  
  
"Very well," said Jareth, "I'll discuss it with your parents and you can come with us when we leave tomorrow morning."  
  
Toby let out a whoop and ran from the doorway to find Karen.  
  
When Jareth turned back to Sarah, it was plain that she was contemplating murder.  
  
"Now, darling," the king cajoled, "don't be so upset. He obviously remembers everything so what harm can a brief visit do? Wouldn't you like him to see the palace and how radiant you are as my queen?"  
  
"Jareth. I may not be able to escape from you, but I will NEVER let you keep Toby."  
  
Jareth took a step back, considering her for a moment before making his reply. In an instant, Sarah found herself beneath him, locked between his body and the pillows on the bed. He pinned her arms above her with one hand and lowered his face to hers until their lips were almost touching.  
  
"Sarah," he said, weaving a lock of her hair through the fingers of his free hand, "I never wanted to keep Toby."  
  
With that, he vanished, leaving Sarah alone to think on his words. 


	22. Chchchchanges!

Disclaimer: I own nothing from "Labyrinth", but any corny jokes and puns appearing in this little fic are all my fault.  
  
Author's Note: Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who has reviewed for your interest and encouragement. I can't tell you how much your comments and insights mean to me. Squeezy Stan, hopefully you'll notice a few positive changes to Chapter 2 thanks to your sharp eyes. Scattered Logic, I'm still pleasantly reeling from your kind words. Angeldevotee, thank heaven you are around (sorry! Pun intended!). To all others who have reviewed either on ff.net or on the Yahoo group, peaches and a giant hug! Your reviews and helpful comments keep me going and hearing from you is a treat!  
  
Chapter 22  
  
Sarah supposed Toby's visit hadn't been going that badly. Her brother had been staying with them for three days and seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. Jareth had been attentive to him, but had given no indication that Toby's visit was any more that just that. In fact, he seemed to go out of his way to make certain Sarah would hear him say things like "when you visit us again during your holidays" and "perhaps we can take a trip into dragon country next year" so that she would know for certain that he planned to take her brother back Aboveground as he had promised.  
  
Even though Sarah was starting to believe that her husband did not plan to keep her brother captive, she still could not bear the thought of Jareth touching her. Their recent conflicts had left her too raw and untrusting to stomach intimacy with him. The first night they spent back in the Underground, he had tried to make love to her and she had fought him with all of her strength. He had seemed surprised at first, then angry, but in the end he had let her go.  
  
Jareth knew that Sarah was upset with him, but had been shocked at the force of her resistance when he had tried to touch her. The evening they arrived back at the castle, he had been watching her as she brushed her hair at her vanity and was overcome by how delicate and desirable she looked in the candlelight. He had stepped behind her, lifting the brush from her hand as he took her into his arms and started kissing her neck. Feeling her writhe against him, he had claimed her lips with his own before she could speak. It wasn't until he had lifted her out of the chair and settled her beneath him on the bed that he realized she was struggling against him in earnest. Jareth had never forced himself on a woman and harming Sarah was unthinkable. Even so, he was furious. Sarah was HIS - his wife and his queen. Never before had he tolerated this kind of defiance from any of his minions - let alone from someone in his own court.  
  
Sarah might refuse to allow him to make love to her, but he had insisted that they continue to share a bedroom. He simply could not afford to have any of his servants or courtiers spreading gossip that the king's own wife flaunted his authority. That first night had been quite a battle. Even after he had released her from his embrace, she had argued with him about sleeping in the same bed. Sarah hadn't relented until he had once again removed the door from their chambers, sealed off the balcony and windows and roared at her that if she would not willingly sleep next to him where she belonged he would gag her and chain her to the bedposts. Sullenly she complied; but on the following nights when he reached for her, she would roll away and if he tried to take her into his arms, she would struggle with him until he let her go.  
  
Toby, thankfully, appeared to be oblivious to the conflict between them. Jareth noticed that Sarah seemed very careful not to involve Toby in any of their arguments or disputes. She would even allow Jareth to hold her in his arms, stroke her hair, and drop light kisses on her face or shoulders - as long as Toby or someone else was present. Grasping at any opening he could find, Jareth shamelessly took advantage of Sarah's reticence to make anyone else aware of the rift between them. He was so "attentive" to his wife in public settings that the court had actually started to gossip about how madly in love their sovereign was with his queen. As gossip went, he supposed such a story was acceptable as long as no one doubted Sarah's loyalty and obedience to him.  
  
Sarah wanted to crawl through her own skin anytime Jareth was nearby. She was grateful that she could spend time with Toby at all, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to enjoy her brother's visit when Jareth hounded her every step. Any time she turned around, he was always taking her into his arms, pressing his lips to her hand, or stroking his fingers through her silky locks. She wore her hair in a severe bun one day just so that he would have one less part of her to grab onto until she realized that putting her hair up only gave him better access to her neck and shoulders. After the "nibbling" incident, she decided that having him play with her hair and weave little braids into it was far better than a neck- full of unsolicited love bites. As frustrated as she felt, she was still determined to keep her problems with Jareth a private matter. She had learned enough about her husband during their brief marriage to know that allowing their problems to become public in any way would only make the situation more desperate. She was determined to protect herself, but forcing his hand in a public arena was not the way to go about it.  
  
Jareth's younger brother Damien had been watching the couple with the same amusement as the rest of the court and so he was shocked, when after three days back in the Underground, Jareth called him into his private study and told him that he needed some advice about Sarah.  
  
Damien relaxed back into his chair with a slightly bemused smirk on his face as he waited for his brother to fill him in. Jareth had never had any trouble garnering attention from the female sex. In fact, he had often had to enlist Damien's help to pry some young woman or other off of his arm or (in one notable instance) to remove a particularly bold lady from his private chambers. There were hundreds of fairy princesses who would have been only too happy to fill the shoes of high queen during the day and warm Jareth's bed at night, so Damien couldn't imagine why his older brother would need advice about his own wife. He regarded the unhappy look on Jareth's face with a mixture of humor and concern. He and Jareth had always argued and played pranks on one another, but no two brothers had ever been closer. If Jareth was troubled, then whatever was amiss was very serious indeed.  
  
After a moment of watching his brother brood, Damien lost patience. "Well?" he inquired, laughter tingeing his voice.  
  
Jareth glowered at him. He hated going to his brother for help because it meant admitting that Damien might actually have more skill at something that he did. It was true that Jareth was a master of seduction, but Damien possessed a light-hearted charm that he did not. The responsibility of kingship rested entirely on Jareth's shoulders and even when he was working his wiles on a woman, he could never quite do so "lightly". He could only hope that his brother might find a way of easing the tension between Sarah and himself that he had yet to think of.  
  
"Damien, it appears that I may need.your assistance," Jareth ground out through clenched teeth.  
  
"Oh?" asked Damien, brows quirking. "And how may I be of 'assistance'?"  
  
A long pause ensued, but Damien waited patiently. Jareth had asked for his help. Now he need only wait for the story.  
  
"My queen and I have been having our .differences. You have always seemed to have a way with womenfolk - making them laugh and such."  
  
Damien's eyes widened when he saw the look of naked pain on Jareth's face. He had never seen his brother in such a state - and most certainly not over a woman. He nodded, waiting for the king to continue.  
  
"I.I can't seem to .find a way to resolve things. I thought you might have a few ideas."  
  
Damien remained silent for a long moment, his face darkening at Jareth's serious expression. "Brother, I suspect this is a little worse than you're letting on."  
  
Jareth made no reply, but the suddenly cold look in his eyes was enough to let Damien know that he'd hit home.  
  
"You have my vow as your brother that I will do everything in my power to help you resolve the 'situation'. However, I believe it's best for you to start at the beginning. I won't be able to help you if I don't have all the information."  
  
With a deep sigh, Jareth began.  
  
An hour later, Damien was leaning forward in his chair, goggle-eyed as the king's tale came to a close. "Oh gods," he breathed, "that's a little bit more of a 'situation' than I had anticipated."  
  
Jareth sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Even thinking about his conflict with Sarah was enough to give him an incredible headache. He finally had her as his wife and he'd still managed to bungle things to the point where she wouldn't even allow him to touch her.  
  
Damien continued, "Since she was the one to defeat your labyrinth I was wondering how on earth you managed to get her back to the Underground! You say she wished HERSELF away this time?"  
  
"Of course! How else could I have brought her here?" Jareth snapped impatiently.  
  
"Yes.but then you say that she tried to climb off the balcony her first night here. Why would she do that if she had wished herself to you in the first place?"  
  
Jareth reddened a bit. So maybe he had conveniently forgotten to mention that Sarah's transportation to the Underground had involved rope.  
  
"Jareth, she did WANT to come back with you, didn't she?"  
  
The king remained silent for a moment. He kept his tone even as he said, "I don't think Sarah fully understood the consequences of her wish. However, what's said is said and she is now MINE." The fire in his eyes challenged Damien to say otherwise.  
  
Damien was appalled. It was true that Jareth had seemed ridiculously lovelorn after Sarah had escaped the Underground, but he had had no idea that his brother had been so desperate to get her back. If Sarah had made the wish, the king had every right to keep her if he wanted to do so, but Damien was still shocked at the idea that his brother would actually kidnap an ADULT into their world. No wonder there was so much tension between he and Sarah!  
  
"But she did marry you willingly enough?" Damien asked, still troubled by Jareth's apparent lack of scruples.  
  
"I very generously offered her marriage so that she could continue to see her family and take part in their lives," the king replied coolly.  
  
Ah.  
  
"But you love her?" Damien pressed.  
  
Jareth was looking truly dangerous, but Damien refused to be cowed. He gazed back at the king, eyes demanding the truth.  
  
"Jareth, if you do not love the lady with all of your soul, why are tormenting yourself over her? Why not release her to her family Aboveground?"  
  
"NEVER!" the king thundered. His face had gone white with rage and the look in his eyes was frightening even to his brother. "Never suggest such a thing to me again! Sarah is my WIFE. Sarah is my QUEEN and," his voice lowered to a sibilant hiss "no one shall EVER take her from my side."  
  
"And you love her," Damien finished the thought that Jareth refused to speak.  
  
The proud line of Jareth's shoulders broke - but only for a second. He regained his composure and looked Damien full in the face, his expression an unreadable mask.  
  
So it was true.  
  
Damien, who was not a complete idiot, decided not to press it. The two men sat in silence for a few moments while Damien mulled over everything Jareth had told him. If Jareth had kidnapped Sarah to make her his queen, it certainly went a long way in explaining why she would resent any kind of submission to him - and his brother was one who expected obedience from all of his subjects. But Sarah had also defeated the labyrinth. The fact that she had accomplished such a feat and conquered the heart of the labyrinth's king SHOULD be a good thing for all involved. Except that Damien couldn't quite explain away the pit in his stomach when he thought of the botched job his brother had made of it. If the Labyrinth had chosen Sarah to rule and Jareth's actions were driving her away, then the situation was grave indeed. He remembered all too well the horrors that had invaded the Underground before Jareth had taken the throne.  
  
Damien chose his words carefully. "Brother and king, you have asked me for my advice and I will help you as best I can."  
  
Jareth's brows shot up at the formal address.  
  
"I believe that the rift between you and your queen could be even more dangerous than you think."  
  
Dangerous? Jareth was surprised. Sarah inflamed his desire, fascinated him and frustrated him at every turn, but he failed to see how their current animosity could be in any way dangerous. "Explain yourself," he sad in clipped tones.  
  
"I think you've noticed the unusual level of power Sarah holds for one who was formerly mortal."  
  
That would be an understatement. Sarah's power was so immense as to rival his own, but Jareth wasn't certain Damien knew that and wasn't about to share the information with him if he didn't.  
  
"Your labyrinth obeys you and yet it is also has a level of its own sentience. If you remember the hours we spent slaving over our history courses, then you can recall the myth about the Conqueror of the Labyrinth."  
  
"Of course," said Jareth testily. Until Sarah, no one had ever defeated his labyrinth. A myth was a myth.  
  
"I suggest to you, Jareth, that the myth we studied was no myth at all, but rather a prophecy. You love her. You refuse to say it and yet you do. The legend stated that the conqueror of the labyrinth would be 'taken unto the Bosom of the Labyrinth, Chosen as its Own to Rule in Love'."  
  
Jareth snorted. What rot.  
  
"Brother, I believe the labyrinth has chosen its Own and even if you will not speak the words, I do not doubt your feelings for her."  
  
The king's eyes narrowed. Perhaps he had discounted Damien's idea too quickly. If Sarah had indeed been chosen" by the labyrinth that would certainly explain the immense levels of power she seemed to possess - especially if she had been chosen to rule, well, to "rule in love" if he listened to some sodding poem. Rule in LOVE?  
  
"And how do you see our situation as being dangerous?" queried Jareth, forcing his mind back to the point.  
  
"If the two halves of power governing the labyrinth do not rule in love, then the strength of the labyrinth will weaken, setting your entire kingdom at risk. According to the legend, when the 'Chosen Rule in Love, no Shadow may Invade the Shining Borders of Their Kingdom' but a "Rift of the Heart Rends the Strength of the Wall'."  
  
Jareth frowned. He wasn't certain he could believe everything Damien was saying, plus the poetry of that legend was positively painful. That said, he wished for nothing more than to see his Sarah smiling at him again.  
  
"And so what exactly are you suggesting I do?"  
  
Damien's gaze became calculating. He knew his brother would not like what he had to say. "Show her that she has no need to fear you. Treat her as your equal. Teach her about her powers. And Jareth, -"  
  
The king raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Tell her how you feel."  
  
- - - - - - -  
  
Jareth found Sarah some hours later sitting with Toby in the solar. Toby was playing a game with two goblins and a fairy while Sarah was curled up with a book, brow furrowed in concentration. He watched her set the book on her lap and then trace a few signs in the air with her hands as she muttered under her breath. At the last second she pointed her finger at the fairy as it whizzed past. What had once been a fairy fell to the floor looking like something that was half-goose and half-rat. The goblins were completely entranced with the new creature and instantly took to chasing it around the room while the recently created gooserat made pitiful attempts to fly off. Sarah cursed to herself while Toby burst out laughing. It was everything Jareth could do not to laugh himself, but he was afraid of what his wife might try to turn him into.  
  
Still oblivious to his presence, Sarah shook out her skirts and made a dive for the gooserat. She missed and landed in a tumble on the floor. She picked herself up, still cursing roundly over Toby's merriment and made another grab for the thing as it flopped by. Once again, her hands closed on nothing but a few feathers. She was headed for another forceful meeting with the flagstones when she felt a pair of strong arms close around her before she could hit the ground. She gasped and looked up into an amused pair of mis-matched eyes. With a grin, Jareth set her lightly on her feet. She immediately tried to move away, but his arms didn't budge. Refusing to struggle with her husband in front of Toby, Sarah gave an irritated sigh and snapped, "Well at least help me catch the dratted thing!"  
  
Without moving his arms enough for her to wriggle away, Jareth flicked his hand and the gooserat froze in mid-leap as if time had stopped for it and it alone. "Your wish is my command," he chuckled, finally giving in to his amusement.  
  
The king's laughter was infectious and Toby once again burst into giggles as the goblins fell on the floor in a riot of hoots and howls. Sarah stood rigidly within the circle of Jareth's arms, growing more irate by the second. In one fierce tug, she wrenched herself out of his grip and stalked over to where her book had fallen. She scanned the table of contents and then impatiently thumbed through the pages until she found what she was looking for. With a glare at the frozen gooserat, she waved her hands in the air again and was rewarded with a giant splat. Resting on her slipper in somewhat gooey glory was an enormous.pound cake.  
  
Jareth made a valiant effort to look politely concerned but one look at Toby, who by now was rolling on the floor with the goblins, and he was lost. Sarah bit her lip as she looked at her ruined slipper. She didn't dare move her foot and risk bringing the fairy back in chunks.  
  
Jareth caught the drift of her concern and stepped in. "You're right - don't move!" he said between gasps of laughter. "Here-" he reached over her and flipped to a page in the book. "This one is more effective for transforming hybrid creatures."  
  
"But now I'm working with inanimate material. Do I need to start with what I have now - the mess sitting on my foot - or should I structure my spell off of what I had in front of me in the first place - a flying fairy?  
  
Jareth grinned, impressed. His wife had a point. "Once a creature or object has been through multiple transmutations you're often stuck working with the residual properties from each phase of existence." He flipped a few pages further in. "Given everything this pound cake has been through, this spell will probably be better than my original suggestion. I think you ended up with a pound cake because you were already casting on a magically transmuted hybrid form. That always makes things trickier. "  
  
Sarah read over the spell, creased her brow again and started impatiently motioning with her hands only to have Jareth catch them in his own in mid- wave.  
  
"No! You'd have ended up with a lobster! Here, you have to be very gentle with this one since it's a delicate spell - like so." He placed her hands lightly on top of his own and moved them through the air in slow, smooth arcs. She couldn't help but shiver as she felt her own magic joined to Jareth's. He held her hands more tightly for the final gesture since the spell ended with a sharp jabbing motion toward the pound cake.  
  
With a poof, Sarah found herself staring into the eyes of an irate fairy that tossed her a dirty look and then flew off in lopsided circles muttering about the parentage of rude and sloppy spell-casters. Sarah sighed and turned away from Jareth, but he refused to let go of her hands.  
  
"Now, now, don't be so discouraged, love. You're doing better than I did when I first started out," he said, pulling her to him in a comforting hug.  
  
"I know," replied Sarah, voice muffled against his chest. "Damien told me."  
  
"Told you what?" the king asked smoothly, tightening his hold on his wife.  
  
"Well, there was the bunny rabbit incident." Sarah began. "He said watching you eat carrots was perfectly adorable." She let out a little giggle.  
  
Jareth supposed he should find his brother and kill him, but he couldn't bring himself to do it with Sarah smiling up at him like that.  
  
Sarah was smiling.  
  
Smiling at HIM.  
  
"Would you like a magic lesson this afternoon? It might offer our dear Toby here some light entertainment," he asked, happy to press any advantage to spend time in her company.  
  
Sarah was about to refuse and pull away from him when she thought better of it. She had been struggling for hours to get even so much as a gooserat out of that stupid transmutation spell. Plus she had been fantasizing about turning her husband into a gerbil ever since he had cornered her behind the flower arrangement at breakfast and very warmly bid her "good morning". She'd had to wait until he came up for air before she could shove her crumpet in his mouth and escape.  
  
As Sarah beamed up at him and nodded her assent, Jareth felt his heart melt into a delightfully oozy mess. He made a mental note to teach her spells that would require his close proximity so that he could help her "guide" her magic.  
  
"Since I was already working with a transmutation spell, I'd like to keep focused on the same kind of magic today - repetition always helps me learn things," Sarah said, casting Jareth her sweetest and most innocently imploring look.  
  
He didn't have a chance.  
  
"Certainly!" Jareth agreed with enthusiasm. "Let's start with inanimate material and then move on to something living. When you transformed the fairy into.well, whatever that was, you were actually teaching yourself magic at a more advanced level than if you had started with - say - a teapot. Hmm.what would be simple to work with?" Jareth wondered, looking around the room for anything handy.  
  
Sarah was somewhat disappointed when Jareth selected a paperweight for her first formal lesson in transmutation, but was careful not to show it. She supposed that starting out with a living being wasn't her best option anyway. She might be highly annoyed with her husband but she didn't want to KILL him or cause him permanent damage. Who knew what would happen if she turned him into something awful and there was no one more experienced with magic around to help? Sarah had every intention of satisfying her need for revenge, but not until she thought she could do so safely.  
  
Both king and queen were so involved in their magic lesson, that the afternoon seemed to pass in a blink. Toby, fascinated with his sister's new abilities, had watched in amazement as she transformed the paperweight again and again. When she finally moved on to a terrified goblin, he clapped his hands in delight as she changed it into a pink poodle and then back again - well, mostly back again. The poor goblin ran around with a fluffy pink tail for several sessions in and out of poodle-dom before Sarah mastered the return transformation. It wasn't until the shadows were stretching across the floor and the light in the room had taken on the rose- gold tinge of sunset that Jareth felt his stomach rumble and suggested that they take a break. Before they could leave, they were interrupted by a voice from the doorway.  
  
"Your Highness, I am most impressed with your progress."  
  
Both Jareth and Sarah looked up in surprise as Damien emerged from the shadows.  
  
Sarah blushed furiously at the realization that Damien might have witnessed the poodle debacle, but the expression on his face was one of open admiration instead of laughter. He strode toward her and bowed over her hand, nodding to Jareth.  
  
"Your Highness-" he started, but Sarah interrupted him.  
  
"No, please! Just call me Sarah!"  
  
Damien looked at Jareth who nodded slightly and then faced his sister-in- law with a grin.  
  
"Alright then, 'Sarah' - at least among family. I was going to ask you if you wanted to try your transmutation magic on a human - well, at least a Fae."  
  
Sarah's smile was like the sun bursting into the room. "Are you volunteering?" she asked mischievously.  
  
"Actually," Damien replied with a smirk, " I thought I would supervise."  
  
Jareth did not like the direction things were going one bit. "That's very helpful of you, Damien, but I believe it's best if my wife sticks to goblins for the time being."  
  
"But darling," Sarah cooed, giving Jareth her very best puppy dog eyes, "thanks to your help, I've come so far today! One more spell?" She finished her plea with a sweet, hopeful smile tugging the corners of her mouth.  
  
Jareth shuddered looking at those eyes.  
  
Sarah wasn't worried a bit. She had used the same look on her parents every time she had wanted to borrow the car as a teenager and it had never failed. Not once.  
  
Knowing deep in his gut that he would regret this decision for the rest of his living days, Jareth nodded. It was with a sense of inescapable dread that he stepped in front of his wife and held out his arms in a gesture of mock surrender. "Do your worst. However-" he cut in before she and Damien could begin, "in exchange, I will ask one favor of you."  
  
Sarah's face clouded briefly with worry. She hadn't thought about Jareth asking her for something in return for letting her practice her magic on him.  
  
"I will select our after-dinner activities this evening and I must have your promise that you will accompany me."  
  
Sarah balked. She wouldn't put it past her husband at all to demand that she accompany him straight to their bed. The hours they had spent together in the afternoon had been friendlier than any they had shared for some time, but she couldn't bear the thought of giving herself to him. The idea of submitting to Jareth now that she knew everything it meant was sickening to her.  
  
"Sheesh, Sarah. He's not going to ask you for anything that bad! Stop being a wuss," piped up Toby from the corner, eager for another magical display.  
  
Sarah felt a knot settle in the middle of her stomach, but nodded anyway. It wouldn't do to involve Toby in her problems with Jareth. She was terrified of what might happen if her brother were to become concerned for her and say something to their parents or, even worse - if Jareth would find some excuse not to return Toby Aboveground.  
  
But if she turned Jareth into something harmless.  
  
No one had said anything about her returning him to his natural form right away.  
  
Ignoring Jareth's look of triumph, she gave Damien her most charming smile and took his extended hand. She felt his magic join to her own, but noticed that she didn't feel the same pleasurable tingle when their powers merged as she had with Jareth. Damien met her smile with a devilish grin and murmured into her ear, "He really will make a lovely rabbit."  
  
Sarah's eyes lit with their own wicked light as she pouted, "But Damien, a bunny is so boring."  
  
Damien was nearly bowled over by the force of the magic he felt streak from Sarah as she wove the spell under his guidance. Jareth had mentioned that his new queen had exceptional power for a former mortal. Jareth had NOT mentioned that Sarah's power was more than a match for her king. Damien lifted Sarah's hands in his and joined his voice to her chant. He had no idea what Sara was about to turn his brother into, but he was practically bouncing with glee to find out.  
  
In a flash, Sarah felt energy rip through her body and out of her hands. She reeled it in, just long enough to fling it at Jareth with a clear image in mind. In front of her eyes, his form seemed to dwindle into a cloud and then shrink down to ankle-level. The tiny cloud seemed to roil around for a few seconds until the motion slowed and it re-formed itself into a soft, golden, fluffy creature with long-ish ears and mismatched eyes.  
  
He was the loveliest corgi Sarah had ever seen.  
  
Out of the corner of her eye, Sarah saw Damien make a few gestures with his hands. She felt a bolt of magic fly from his fingers and looked up at him inquiringly. "Did I do something wrong with the spell?" "Not at all," Damien replied casually. "I just thought a little binding spell might add to the quality of your evening."  
  
Sarah stared at him confused.  
  
"My magic isn't as strong as his, so I won't be able to hold him long - probably not much past dinner, but I thought you might enjoy having a pet here. Jareth mentioned to me that your family once had a dog Aboveground."  
  
Sarah's answering smile was beatific.  
  
"Oooo!" she cooed, rushing to sweep the little golden dog into her arms. "Aren't YOU a sweetie!! Yes, you ARE!"  
  
The little bundle of fur nestled against her looked unsure as to whether it should nip her or wag its tail.  
  
Damien grinned broadly at the sight of Sarah cuddling her new pet. The poor girl had suffered enough at his brother's hands. It was high time that she experienced some enjoyment in her own palace. He knew there would be hell to pay for it, but he would be certain to direct Jareth's wrath toward himself and away from Sarah when the time came.  
  
Jareth, meanwhile, felt quite certain that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite make his brain think clearly. He was being smooshed up against a lovely pair of bosoms. A part of him only noticed said bosoms as being warm and comfy, yet another part had an intense interest in their gentle curve and seeming sensitivity. He stared up at the owner of the bosoms, confused. He couldn't quite.shake.whatever this was that had come over him. He tried again and failed.  
  
Damien could feel Jareth probing against his magic and decided to make the most of the situation while he could. "Shall we be off to dinner then?" he suggested jovially and received enthusiastic agreements from both Sarah and Toby.  
  
Sarah paused. "And what will we feed Butterball? I doubt he'll want the same thing he usually eats."  
  
Butterball. Delightful. Damien was liking this woman his brother had married more and more.  
  
"Oh, I'm certain we can convince the palace chefs to throw him an extra bone or two," Damien smirked.  
  
Sarah almost felt bad. But not quite.  
  
The three of them strolled off to the dining room, Sarah still carrying the Underground's cutest corgi in her arms. When they reached the dinner table, Sarah looked about, wondering what etiquette demanded she do with her pet during a meal. She had seen other nobles place their beloved pets either on their laps or on little cushions next to their chairs. Butterball/Jareth started to wriggle in her arms and she struggled to keep him from leaping away.  
  
"Here, this should help." With a graceful wave of Damien's fingers, a small collar and leash appeared around the corgi's neck. "Tie him to the table leg so he'll stay put. You can feed him scraps from your plate."  
  
Sarah raised her eyebrows aghast. The idea of taking Damien's suggestion made her outrageously happy, but she was terrified of the possible consequences when Jareth finally came out of it.  
  
"Don't worry a bit. I'll deal my brother when it becomes necessary. Meanwhile, enjoy. I imagine that your sudden relocation to the Underground has been difficult and traumatic for you. I'd like to demonstrate that we're not ALL a bunch of domineering, sodden prigs without a sense of humor down here."  
  
Sarah looked shocked and then shot Damien a warning glance, inclining her head very slightly toward Toby. Damien nodded in acknowledgement, but was pleased to see that Sarah was having a difficult time stifling her giggles.  
  
Dinner passed quite amiably between the three of them. Sarah was pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoyed her brother-in-law's company. The last thing she had ever expected to find was another person in the Underground who might be sympathetic to her plight. She didn't discuss any aspect of her conflict with her husband, but suspected that Damien knew far more than he was letting on. She noticed that he went out of his way to ask her about the foods, books and activities she enjoyed and then suggest Underground equivalents or ways that she could explore her interests in her new home. He stressed that he wanted her to be happy in her role as queen and that she had only to ask if she had any questions or needed any further lessons in magic.  
  
Butterball/Jareth seemed oblivious to their conversation. He was far too busy playing with Toby and nosing around the intricacies of Sarah's full skirts. Every now and then one of the company at the table would throw him a juicy bone or a thick piece of fat and he would forget everything for a while, completely swept away in the delight of eating.  
  
Sarah watched the little dog struggle valiantly with an oversize T-bone and felt her heart melt. He was just so CUTE. If only her husband could be this lovable all the time. She had sorely missed her old sheepdog Merlin when he had finally passed away. Having a dog around lent an air of "rightness" to her surroundings that hadn't been there since she had moved out of her parents' house. She sighed deeply and untied him from the table, lifting him back into her arms.  
  
Jareth's brain still felt packed in cotton. He knew he should be angry at the beautiful creature who was holding him, but he couldn't quite remember why. She fed him. That alone was the basis for lifelong loyalty and devotion, right?  
  
"Why don't the three of us play a game? I have a few sets of cards stashed away in the back study," Damien said, holding out one arm for Sarah and another for Toby.  
  
"Sure!" Toby agreed enthusiastically, grabbing Damien's outstretched hand.  
  
Sarah shivered lightly. "Mmm - I'm actually getting chilly. I'll change into something warmer and join you in a minute. Don't let Toby cut the cards!" she called over her shoulder as she made her way to the suite of rooms she shared with Jareth.  
  
She had completely forgotten about the little dog cradled against her until she reached the double doors that led to their chambers.  
  
Damn, damn, damn. Would that spell hold Butterball/Jareth long enough for her to change and then drag him back to Damien before she ended up face to face with an irate Goblin King? She almost turned around right there, but then decided against it. She had walked all the way to their chambers and it would only take her a moment to change clothes. She could RUN all the way to Damien and Toby if necessary.  
  
She gave Butterball a brief scratch behind the ears and then slipped into the next room to change. When she emerged, she was pleased to see that her new pet was still waiting patiently for her outside the door right where she had left him. It was with a sigh of relief that she picked up the little corgi and headed into the shadowy hallway to join her brother and Damien. She absently stroked the dog's ears and then stopped, coming to a full halt in the middle of the corridor.  
  
The collar was gone.  
  
She could have sworn that Butterball had been wearing a collar when she had slipped inside her dressing room to change her gown.  
  
She looked into the corgi's mis-matched eyes intently, but saw nothing in them except the expression of innocent confusion that had been there all night. With a sigh, she put him down, wondering if he had somehow managed to tear the thing off. That leash had come in awfully handy at dinner and she wanted the same advantage while she played cards with Damien and Toby.  
  
She was just turning back toward the bedroom to make absolutely certain that the collar wasn't lying shredded on the floor somewhere, when she felt an arm snake around her waist and a gloved hand close over her mouth.  
  
"Off to play a game are you?" his voiced hissed into her ear. "And I thought you had promised the balance of your evening to me."  
  
Sarah tried to reply, but couldn't since Jareth was still holding his hand firmly over her mouth.  
  
"According to your promise, I believe I will be guiding your activities for the rest of the night."  
  
Sarah had never been so terrified in her entire life. With an enormous force of will, she kept herself from struggling and forced herself to nod in agreement. Physically fighting Jareth would do her no good. She would need to wait for an opportunity to strike back with magic.  
  
"Don't bother." Jareth sneered, as if reading her thoughts. "You'll only exhaust yourself. I may have granted you protection against my own magic, but there's nothing to stop me from blocking yours should you be foolish enough to try and use it against me."  
  
It was everything Sarah could do not to collapse in panic. She tried to turn herself in Jareth's arms so that she could face him, but he held her fast.  
  
"Oh no, love," his breath caressed her ear, "I won't risk them hearing you. Now hold still."  
  
She felt the transportation spell take effect with a familiar sensation of warmth and weightlessness. When they arrived at their destination, Jareth murmured, "Remember, we are quite alone. No one to hear you. And nowhere to run." Slowly, he eased his hold on her and she opened her eyes.  
  
All the color drained from her face as she saw the horror surrounding her on three sides.  
  
Jareth's mocking voice rang through the gloom. "Behold, love, the foundation of my kingdom." 


	23. Don't tell me truth hurts, little girl

**Disclaimer**: The only thing I own in this story is Damien. Yeah. I made him pretty hot. If I have to claim him, I might as well make him a cutie, right?

**Author's Note**: I've received a number of comments about the unhealthy relationship between Jareth and Sarah in this story. To ease worried minds, I would like to state once and for all that I am a huge fan of healthy relationships – and happy endings. However, it is also important to me to stay true to characterization. It has always been my belief that had Jareth and Sarah actually become a couple that they would have had a severely difficult time adjusting. If a person looks at the characterization in the film, Sarah is portrayed as someone with a strong will who doesn't like to be told what to do. Jareth is portrayed as a dominant and possessive person – "Fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave" and "Let me rule you and you can have anything you want". 

I've made every effort to stay true to what I think these two people might actually have done had they been thrust together and no, it isn't pretty. That brings me to the title of my fic – "An Equal Partner". I've also chosen to stay true to my title to the letter in constructing the overall arc of my plot. Please bear with me, and sincere thanks to all who have reviewed and given me helpful criticism! Your comments are making my story better and I do appreciate them!

Solea

**Credit Due: **Scattered Logic is da bomb.

Chapter 23 

Damien was getting worried. He and Toby had been waiting for Sarah for nearly twenty minutes and she had yet to appear. He paced the room, attempting to look nonchalant as Toby shuffled and reshuffled the cards. 

"Does your sister always take this long to change clothes?" 

"Naw. She's never really been into that stuff," Toby replied, absently arranging the deck in different patterns.

Damien was aching to tear out of the room and go looking for Sarah. If anything awful happened to her, it would be his entire fault. He had been counting on being in the room whenever Jareth would finally manage to shake off his binding spell. He didn't think his brother would ever dream of hurting Sarah, but Jareth's wrath was a formidable thing and he hated to think that he had left her to face him alone.

"Toby, I'm just going to go knock on her door and make sure she's all right. Wait here and I'll be back in a minute." 

Damien walked casually out the door, but as soon he knew he would be out of Toby's sight, he flew down the hall as fast as his legs would carry him, wishing he could use his magic to travel faster. The king had understandably placed a block on any teleportation spells except his own as far as the royal private chambers were concerned. Any desiring to see him in the royal bedroom or private study would have to walk there on foot, knock and request an audience. 

After a few twists and turns, Damien came to the entrance of the master suite. He listened at the doors for a moment, hoping to hear some movement inside. When no sound greeted his ears, he knocked and called Sarah's name softly. No answer. He knew he would be opening a kettle of fish with dire consequences by letting himself into the private royal chambers without permission, but decided the safety of his sister-in-law was well worth it. 

Cautiously, he cracked the door open. A few lamps were burning here and there about the room, but he saw no evidence of either Jareth or Sarah. The dress Sarah had been wearing at supper was folded over the side of a dressing screen in the corner, but no other sign of her having been there was evident. The room was neat and clean without any sign of struggle or disturbance. Still Damien could sense that something was wrong. Something was out of place. What was it? 

Scanning the room one more time, he saw a small object lying next to the corner of the dressing screen. He felt his heart constrict in his chest as he picked it up. 

The collar. The collar he had conjured onto Jareth at dinner. 

There was no way the king could have released himself from that collar unless he had come out of the binding spell Damien had placed on him earlier. And if he had finally shrugged off the binding spell that meant that Sarah had been alone…

In a flash, he felt through the area with his magic, trying to gauge where Jareth and Sarah might be. He felt a lingering pull out in the hallway and followed it until he came to the spot where the two of them must have transported. He could tell that wherever they had gone the spell had been Jareth's. Cursing to himself for his idiocy in leaving Sarah, he broadened the scope of his search. He could feel Jareth's presence somewhere far away, and, he guessed, still inside the palace grounds if he could sense his brother's presence at all. 

Damien growled in frustration when he tried to locate where Jareth had gone and couldn't. His brother must have put up a tracing block. Even though Damien could feel Jareth's magic, he couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. Even more distressing, he couldn't feel Sarah at all.

"Sarah, hang on. I'm coming," he muttered under his breath as he racked his brains for where Jareth might have taken her. The dungeons? It was a thought. Jareth's power was so strong as ruler of the Underground that he hadn't kept a prisoner for years. There had been no need. If nothing else, the dungeons would be deserted and no one was likely to be in earshot of whatever was happening down there. 

Damien didn't hesitate and in a shimmer of light, he was gone.

Sarah whirled away from her husband and was promptly sick. 

She had always had a strong stomach, but the sight that greeted her in the gloom was too much even for her. 

She and Jareth were standing in the middle of what she supposed must be the bowels of the castle, judging from the lack of light and the dank, earthy smell. The floor beneath her was rough-hewn rock and slimed over with some kind of putrid sludge. 

But it was the walls surrounding her that made her feel dizzyingly faint when she looked at them. Instead of earth or stone, each wall seemed to be composed of the stacked, rotting flesh of every kind of horrific monster she had ever imagined. She could make out a horn here, some claws or what had once been a set of fangs there. Every creature molded into the wall had been hideously mangled, with body parts dangling or cocked at crazy angles. Some looked charred, as if they had been smoked with powerful magic while others appeared to have been hacked into pieces. 

The worst thing about the macabre spectacle wasn't the ruined bodies themselves, but the mortar between them. Where blood and fluids left off, a gray, gelatinous substance began. It appeared to be created from pure shadow and Sarah noticed the fragile illumination from Jareth's light spell was sucked into nothingness whenever it came into contact with the gray ooze. Whatever the substance was, it wove through the corpses and where it surfaced, splayed over faces and body parts like a moth-eaten veil.

Jareth saw Sarah's reaction and almost regretted his choice. He hadn't originally planned to bring Sarah here at all. In fact, he had had a lovely candlelight dessert set up in the family portrait gallery, hoping to do something romantic to woo his wife while letting her know a bit more about the history of the labyrinth. 

Being turned into a dog and chained to a table had simply been too much. 

While Sarah had been changing clothes, Jareth had finally managed to shake Damien's binding spell and fully comprehend the evening of humiliation that had been heaped on him. His rage had been a white, cold thing with dangerous implications. That his brother would make such a foolish mistake was one thing. That his own queen had cheerfully abetted the treatment he had been subjected to – in the dining hall in full view of any servants and staff, no less – was unforgivable. Even though his anger made him shiver hot and cold with the force of it, he knew he could never physically harm Sarah. However, he was not above frightening her within an inch of her life. 

With an icy smile, Jareth decided just the lesson his lovely Sarah needed. It was high time she learned what it meant to be ruler of the Underground. He had endured living hell to bring peace to his kingdom and had been forced to deal ruthlessly with the forces that posed a threat to the sanctity of the labyrinth. His own parents had fallen to the most terrifying predator the kingdom had ever known – an eerie creature that appeared to be pure shadow, but that would eat away at anything it came into contact with until the creature or object was no more than a fragile, crystalline husk. It wasn't until Jareth had joined his magic to Damien's that they had managed to stop it – or in this case, freeze it in its tracks. What was left of it coated the bodies of the evil creatures that Jareth had defeated in the battle to secure the safety of his realm. All remained frozen in time as a gruesome testament to the war that had seared the land almost beyond repair. Sections of the labyrinth had still been in ruin when Sarah had traveled through it thirteen years ago. It had only been with a massive effort of organization and magic that he and Damien had gradually restored the kingdom to its former glory.

Sarah took a moment to recover and then slowly raised her head to look her husband in the eye. 

"Why have you brought me here?" she croaked. The walls of this room were the most sickening sight she had ever encountered. Was he planning to add _her_ to the mangled beings stacked up and rotting here?

"I have been generous with you," the king rasped, eyes flashing, "-_more_ than generous! Twice you have wished to enter my kingdom, and twice I have granted your wish. Each time you have called on me, I have turned the world upside down just so that I could live up to YOUR expectations! You wished that I take your brother and I took him. You wished for a chance to earn him back and I gave you the chance. Years later, you wished for me to come for you and once again, I answered your call. Once you were here, you asked to see your family and I took you as my wife and my queen just so that, yet again , YOUR WISH could be granted!" As he spoke, Jareth prowled around Sarah in a circle, stalking her with a hunter's grace. "And at every turn you defy me, deny me the pleasures of my own marriage bed, and seek to humiliate me in front of my court!"

Sarah tried to interrupt, but Jareth cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Not one word!" he warned. "THIS-" he said, indicating the putrid walls of flesh that surrounded them, "-is what it cost me to secure this kingdom – MY kingdom. More blood and more pain have gone into the daily survival of my realm than you can possibly imagine, and yet you dare to force me into the role of fool in my own palace!"

Jareth paused behind Sarah and slipped an arm around her waist. "I believe," he growled, his hot breath on her neck, "that you could use a lesson or two in gratitude, my dear."

Sarah snapped.

Her anger was so fierce that the force of her will outstripped her ability to think about what she was doing. 

Jareth never saw her coming or he might have stood back a step or two. 

Or at the very least teleported Aboveground as fast as his magic could carry him.

The next thing he knew, his arms were torn from around her and he was flung back so hard that if the walls hadn't been made of rotting flesh, his bones might have cracked. He landed against the wall with an oozing splat and shuddered as he felt the crystalline web that mortared the corpses brush up against him. 

"_Gratitude?_" Sarah hissed. Her face flashed with an awful beauty as another bolt of magic streaked from her fingers. 

Jareth managed to block part of her attack, but he was still hurting from her initial strike and grunted in pain as he was tossed back for a second time from the blow.

"Of course!" she sneered. "How could I NOT be deeply _grateful_ to be forcibly abducted from my home?"

"YOU called to me-"

Sarah dodged to the side just in time to avoid the crystal Jareth flung at her from where he lay, panting. It hit the wall behind her, but as soon as it came into contact with the gray "mortar", it disintegrated into shadow.

"Naturally, I should be GRATEFUL to you for marrying me! Marriage to you has been SUCH a pleasure! I've never been happier than when you've dropped me into an oubliette or lashed me to our bed!" As she spoke, Sarah wove her hands in the air and Jareth was knocked to his knees as he felt invisible ropes twine tightly around his wrists and ankles, binding them together. 

Jareth regarded his wife coolly as he flicked the magical restraints away with a quick counterspell. His queen had progressed further with her power than he had thought.  "As I recall, after the oubliette 'incident', I gave you my solemn vow never to hurt you again. As far as that little scene in our bedroom was concerned, you didn't seem to object much as the evening wore on. Or were you moaning my name out of fury?"

Sarah flushed in humiliation and anger at the memory of that night. She hated herself for it, but she knew she had responded to him even in the midst of her rage at having been tied down.

The king sauntered closer, his voice lowering to an intimate whisper. "No love, I think you rather enjoyed our tete a tete. We'll have to explore more of this side of your nature." With that he pulled her roughly against him, searching for her lips with his own.

Sarah flung herself away so hard that she nearly landed on the floor in a heap. "Don't touch me!" she spat. "You married me to prove your 'power' over the girl who defeated your labyrinth. Fine. I can't stop you from flaunting our marriage in front of your subjects like the conquering hero, but that's ALL you get! From now on, I will sleep in my own room, in my own bed, in PEACE."

Jareth simply smiled at her and after a moment of silence said, "Try it."

Sarah snorted and turned to leave only to run into Jareth's chest. She hated it when he did that.

In a blink he had wrapped one arm around his wife and tangled the fingers of his other hand in her hair, deftly slipping it free of the pins that held it back so that it tumbled free around her shoulders. He felt her attacking magic grip him like a powerful hand, but was prepared for it this time and blocked her spell easily. Failing to free herself with magic, Sarah tried to wrench out of his arms, but they might as well have been iron bands for all the good her efforts did her.

Jareth wove his fingers gently through the silk of her hair, reaching up to caress her cheek. He paused when he felt the wetness of her tears. "Sarah, why must you always be so difficult? I'm really not that awful."

"Yes you ARE!" she cried, trying once more to escape him without success.

"I've given you everything you could possibly desire! You live a life of luxury as my queen! You see your friends from the Labyrinth as well as your family Aboveground! I have granted your every wish! What more could you possibly want from me?!" His voice had risen to a roar as he felt his tenuous hold on his temper falter.

Tears of rage spilled down Sarah's cheeks. "Every time I turn around you're tying me to something, holding me down and threatening me, or dropping me into some god-awful pit! You treat me as if…as if…I were some kind of ANIMAL or something! I only turned you into a dog so that you could see how it feels for me EVERY DAMN DAY!"

She was sobbing so hard, that she could scarcely speak, but she pressed ahead. "You claim that I should be grateful to you for granting my every desire! You've never granted my desire – only twisted my words or taken advantage of me to get whatever YOU wanted! When I think that I ever believed I could love you-"

"You …love me?" Jareth's features were frozen in shock. 

In his surprise, he loosened his grip and Sarah seized the moment to whirl away from him.

"No. I don't love you. I can't love a man who treats me like some kind of thing that he owns or a pet that he can discipline. Every day of our marriage has been living hell because I never know what you're going to do to me next! I've been so afraid this whole time and I'm sick of it!" Her voice caught as she became overwhelmed by her feelings. After a moment Sarah was able to calm herself enough that she thought she could speak again.

She looked up and was startled to see Jareth looking pale and stricken. 

"Sarah, you must understand that as your king-"

Her sharp bark of laughter interrupted him. "My king? MY KING? Understand ME, Jareth – NEVER are you my king. You might parade me in front of your court like some kind of stupid trophy, but I will never answer to you! I may be trapped here with you, but I belong to no one but myself!"

"I AM your king and I have not fought all this," he thundered, gesturing at the carnage stacked up around them, "to be defied by own queen in my own castle!" His tone softened, " I am sorry I have frightened you, Sarah. However, I cannot tolerate the kind of defiance you have flung at me repeatedly. I rule this kingdom and have managed to keep my realm peaceful for hundreds of years. The peace all of my minions enjoy came at a great price – as you can see." He motioned again toward the piles of rot. "I cannot allow my authority to be questioned by you or anyone else and hope to maintain the stability the Underground has enjoyed for so many years. You may be upset with me from time to time, but Sarah – you WILL love me, fear me, and do as I say. You have no choice in the matter."

Sarah stared at him for a long moment. Her eyes still shone with tears, but they had taken on a frighteningly cold quality that Jareth had never seen before. 

"I will never love you, Jareth. You may frighten me. You may force me to do as you say. But my hatred for you will always be my own." 

The king started toward her again. Sarah wasn't certain what he planned to do, but she wasn't about to wait and find out. With the last of her strength, she flung one more spell at him. He was unprepared and gasped in pain as the lighting from her fingers seared his chest. The lapse in his concentration wasn't much, but it was enough for her to brush past him and flee through the doorway beyond. 

Jareth immediately rose and teleported out to the hallway, expecting to block her as she ran. He materialized only to find an empty corridor. She couldn't have run more than twenty feet in the time it took him to transport himself. He listened carefully for her retreating footsteps but heard nothing except the whistle of the draft that ran through the halls of his dungeons. 

Frowning, he tried to trace her and was rewarded with the faint residue of magic only a few feet away. Another transportation spell…but it wasn't Sarah's. In fact, he didn't think Sarah had even covered dimensional doors in her studies, so there was no way she would know how to magically travel from place to place yet. So how…

Then he knew.

He would find that meddling whelp and teach him a sound lesson. Without ceremony, the king vanished.

If Jareth had waited only a moment longer, he might have heard the slithery bump echo through the room he had just left.

But he didn't.

Sarah fled through the doorway; her only thought to put as much distance between herself and Jareth as possible before he could recover. Her flight was abruptly halted when she slammed into something hard. She felt a pair of arms close around her and gasped, expecting to see Jareth towering over her. Instead her hunted eyes met a pair of warm brown ones, gazing down on her in concern.

Damien took only one look at Sarah's frightened, tear-stained face before he transported them instantly. When they arrived in his private study, he noticed she was shaking violently. He cast about the room until his eyes landed on a blanket thrown over the arm of a chair. Gently, he wrapped it around the trembling woman and guided her over to the sofa where he held her in his arms, loaning her the heat from his body until her shivering subsided. After a moment, he settled back and then conjured a cup of hot tea that he handed over to Sarah.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Damien spoke. "Are you all right? He didn't hurt you, did he?"

Sarah shook her head.

"Sarah, tell me what happened."

She shook her head again.

"I know that my brother brought you here against your will. I love him dearly, but I disagree with the way he's handled this entire situation. Sarah, you may feel alone, but I want you to know that you are not without friends here. Please, let me help."

Sarah lowered her head into her hands. After a deep, shuddering sigh, she finally spoke. "Damien, I'm so frightened and so tired. At every turn, he's always forcing me to do something I don't want to do.  I just…I'm starting to really hate him."

Sarah's story came out in rush. It had been so long since she'd felt she had anyone she could talk to. 

Damien sat quiet, simply listening as the queen's version of events poured forth. Once in awhile, he would reach over and squeeze her hand reassuringly. He knew such behavior was unbelievably forward since the woman sitting next to him was one of the high rulers of the Underground, but he didn't think she would mind. She looked so small and lonely. His heart filled with sympathy at the terror she must have been subjected to. Apparently absolute power had made his brother a bit of an ass. Damien knew that Jareth was hopelessly in love with his queen and would never truly harm even so much as a hair on her head, but the dolt had taken a "no holds barred" approach to frightening her silly. Damien was more than a little tempted to run off and sock him in the nose, but he didn't think an action like that would contribute much to solving the situation.

When Sarah reached the part of her tale that had just occurred in the room filled with desiccated corpses, Damien snapped to attention. "Sarah, did Jareth tell you why he had brought you there?"

She looked up, startled at the intensity of Damien's tone. "Well, he said that he wanted me to see what it had taken to secure the safety of the kingdom. I think he was trying to make a point about how cruel he could be or something. Honestly, I was so angry that I wasn't really listening."

Damien's brow furrowed. "That's all he told you?"

"That's all. But why am I getting the distinct feeling there's more that I should know?"

"There is. Much more. Would you be willing to allow me to transport you to our family portrait gallery?"

Touched that someone had actually ASKED her if she would allow herself to be transported, Sarah gave him a shy smile and held out her hand. He grasped it and in a blink they were standing in a shadowy hallway. Damien conjured some light and Sarah sucked in her breath at the sight that surrounded them. 

The walls were covered from floor to ceiling with enormous paintings and intricate tapestries. Sarah knew she was gawking like a six-year-old at the county fair, but she couldn't help it. Underground "paintings" were an entirely different thing than the paintings of the Aboveworld. Yes, each work was still comprised of paint and canvas – but the colors! She was glad she was still holding on to Damien's hand since the effect of all that intense color was nearly dizzying. 

Damien chuckled beside her. "It's a little much if you're not used to it."

Sarah nodded. But it was more than just the colors. Each picture looked so…REAL. Not real in the manner of Aboveground photographs, but rather, the portraits surrounding them seemed to carry a piece of the essence of each person they depicted. As she looked up into the wizened features of the old man in the portrait on her left, his eyes twinkled at her mischievously. She had no idea who he was, but she liked him immediately.

"That's our great grandfather," Damien murmured from beside her. "He chose to join himself to the Underground about twenty thousand years ago. While he reigned, our realm experienced a period of exceptional peace and prosperity. He had a reputation for being a bit of joker though and sometimes one of his pranks would go wrong. He is personally responsible for the creation of the Bog of Eternal Stench."

Sarah's brows shot up.

"Yes," Damien continued. "His wife was forever complaining about how little help he was when it came to diaper-changing time for their little ones. She mocked him incessantly for thinking himself a hardened warrior when he couldn't even stand the smell of good, clean shit. He created the Bog as a surprise for her when he took her picnicking one day and then found that he couldn't get rid of it."

Sarah chucked her amusement. "And who was his wife?" she asked. This was a queen she had to see.

"Over there," Damien grinned, pointing across the hallway to the painting directly opposite that of the old king. "Her name was Emmeline."

Sarah looked over and couldn't help but smile to herself. The woman in the portrait may have had snow-white hair, but her lovely face was ageless. The eyes looking out of the picture were sharp but kind, and Sarah wished with all her heart that the woman were still alive so that she could talk to her. She got the strong sense that Emmeline would have had no trouble handling a man like Jareth. If he had been responsible for that infernal Bog, then Emmeline's husband must have been quite the handful himself. As she peered closer, Sarah could have sworn that the two portraits situated on opposite sides of the hall were looking at each other affectionately. 

Damien saw her gazing back and forth and smiled. "They were very much in love," he said a little sadly. "The Underground has rarely seen such a time of joy and prosperity as when those two were ruling together." 

The queen looked over at her brother-in-law in confusion. "Of course a happy marriage is a good thing, but what would their relationship have had to do with the peace of the Underground?"

"Everything. Of course this is one point where Jareth and I disagree."

"Oh?"

"Every child in the Underground must study the history of the land, just as you do in your world. However, since our realm is one where magic reigns over the physical laws of your Aboveground science, our history is expressed differently. Yes, we have books that chronicle wars and the birth of cities, but the records of the beginnings of our world are couched in myth and legend."

Sarah smiled. "It's not so different Aboveground – really." How many times had she been forced to suffer through the "Epic of Gilgamesh"?

Damien continued, "One legend in particular seems to have proven itself true throughout the ages – the legend of the 'Conqueror of the Labyrinth'. In a nutshell, the story states that the peace of the Underground is directly related to the happiness of its reigning king and queen. Magic is woven into the fibers of everything in our realm – so much so that even emotions like love and hate take on an independent sentience and significance as their own kind of 'magic'. According to the myth, when a king and queen 'Rule in Love, no Shadow may Invade the Shining Borders of Their Kingdom', but a 'Rift of the Heart Rends the Strength of the Wall'". 

Damien smirked as Sarah winced at the awful poetry of the legend. At least she and Jareth had one thing in common.

"But why is the legend called 'The Conqueror of the Labyrinth'?"

"Well, that's where you come in," Damien sighed.

Crap. She knew it. 

"You may have noticed that you have an impressive bit of magical power at your disposal."

Sarah looked at him askance. Did she? She had no idea how her powers might stack up against those of other magic users. She had been able to defend herself from Jareth in the dungeons, but the effort had been so taxing that she had nearly fainted into Damien's arms when he had caught her in the hallway.

"Sarah," he said patiently, "most mortals who become Fae scarcely have enough magic to warm a bowl of porridge. You have even more power than I do. The only one in this realm whose power is equal to your own is King Jareth himself."

She digested this bit of information before asking, "So if I have all this power, what does that have to do with your legend?"

"The labyrinth chose you to rule – well, specifically to 'Rule in Love' with its king."

Sarah burst out laughing in disbelief. 

Damien's brow darkened at her reaction. He needed to convince her of the seriousness of the situation.

"I actually brought you here so I could show you this portrait," he said, offering her his arm and leading her further down the corridor. 

They stopped in front of a picture of two people who Sarah supposed must also have once been a king and queen. Unlike Damien's great-grandparents, the people in the picture seemed visibly at odds. The man's eyes were distantly imposing and his hand rested on the shoulder of the woman with a heavy possessiveness that seemed more controlling than loving. The woman was leaning slightly away from the man with an expression of ill-concealed loathing dusting her beautiful features. Her pallor looked unhealthy and Sarah could see the traces of circles under her eyes.

"These are our parents," Damien stated. 

Sarah's eyes widened. 

"Their reign was brief and violent, their marriage an arranged one and unhappy. Both Jareth and I are the product of rape," Damien spat distastefully. "Our father was a cruel and brutish man, and our mother suffered the worst of it. I would have felt sorry for her if she had ever shown even so much as a scrap of care for either Jareth or myself; but she was far more likely to strike us if we came within her sight than even offer us polite disdain. I think she hated us because of the manner in which we were conceived and also because we were a part of HIM," he waved a hand at the image of his father. "He was unbelievably cruel to her, but she was a vain and selfish woman. Our kingdom was nearly destroyed under their rule."

Sarah looked back to Damien in a mixture of sympathy and curiosity. 

Damien guessed her thoughts. "I suppose, in a way, Jareth and I were lucky to have absentee parents. Our nursemaid and weapons master – two of the kindest and wisest people who have ever lived, raised us. They were concerned for the future of the realm, and did everything they could to prepare Jareth and myself to rule peacefully and well."

"How was your kingdom nearly destroyed?"

"I mentioned that love and hate take on their own brand of power in this world. Just when Jareth had reached an age where he was a powerful warrior and magic-user in his own right, our borders were invaded by what appeared to be no more than a shadow. At first none of us noticed it. The days seemed a little dimmer than they had before, the walls of the labyrinth darker and more closed-in. Then we started finding the first corpses. Some looked as if they had been torn apart by beasts, others as if they had had the blood drained from them. Most frightening were the ones that appeared nearly normal, as if they were sleeping, until you touched them and they fell to dust under your hand. Both the life and the magic had been drained out of them until they were no more than crystallized shells. Our parents met their ends at the hands of such a horror, but not before our entire kingdom had been ravaged by it - by it and the creatures that practiced dark magicks."

"Dark magicks?"

"Creatures like vampires, wargs, and trolls."

Oh. That explained the pile of bodies in the basement then.

"So how did you save your kingdom? Why does Jareth have all those corpses stacked up in the dungeons?"

"Jareth and I joined our magical powers to defeat that darkness that threatened to engulf the Underground, but he and I are in disagreement as to exactly how our kingdom was saved. Jareth has never put any stock in the myth, and he believes that the force of our combined magic was the determining factor in our eventual victory. I think otherwise. He is my brother and has been my strength and solace through the most difficult of times. He's my family, Sarah,  and I love him with all of my heart." Damien felt awkward talking about something so close to him to a woman he had only known a few days, but the urgency of the situation drew him onward. "I know that the love that Jareth and I bear for each other as brothers had everything to do with rescuing our land from ruin. What else could stop a creature so clearly born from hate?"

"So what does this have to do with me? If your kingdom were ever threatened again, surely you and Jareth could defeat your enemies together?"

"It's not that simple. The labyrinth chose YOU to 'Rule in Love' at Jareth's side. Your relationship with him is now the key to our safety."

"You've got to be kidding. Jareth doesn't even love me. He only married me to prove his power over the only one to have defeated his labyrinth – he told me so himself."

Damien smacked his forehead and let out a string of curses. His brother was an ASS. No, make that a STUPID ass. "And what of your feelings for him?"

Sarah blushed. She wasn't certain how much she should confide in her brother-in-law. She supposed he now counted as "family" and he seemed sympathetic to her plight, but she also knew he was completely loyal to Jareth. "Damien, I can't love a man who insists on being my master."

"He is your king."

"And I am his queen. Not a subject, not a servant, not a thing to be owned and controlled."

Damien sighed. He knew Sarah was right. "Your highness, Jareth nearly lost his life fighting the evil that threatened us so long ago. He was forced to be ruthless to preserve us all. Since then no one has ever dared challenge his authority, and truly, our kingdom has been so prosperous and peaceful that few have wanted to. I think the things that have made my brother strong as a king have made him…clumsy…as a man. He doesn't mean to be cruel,  but, Sarah, he has never known another person whom he viewed as his equal in every respect. I may be his brother, but I am also his subject."

Sarah sighed and tried to steer the conversation onto another topic. "How can he lose his life? For that matter, how can any of you lose your lives. Aren't Fae immortal?"

"Nearly immortal. There comes a time for every Fae when he or she chooses to give up individual essence to become part of the greater whole. It's a little like…a bath with bubbles in it. We're all 'bubbles' made up of the same magic, but each of us is part of the greater magical 'bath', if you will. We don't exactly die, but we no longer exist as separate individuals."

"So Jareth was really only risking a change of 'being' when he fought whatever was threatening your kingdom."

"No. The shadow creature sucked the magic as well as the life from its victims. Jareth would truly have ceased to exist. There would have been no magical essence left to join with the Underground if the shadow had destroyed him."

"Oh."

"And don't try to avoid the subject – Sarah, Jareth has been breathtakingly stupid, but I do believe he cares for you, and that right deeply."

As Damien finished his declaration, the two of them felt a light breeze ruffle over them, stirring their hair and clothes.

"What on earth-" Damien mumbled, peering around the corner where the breeze was coming from.

Sarah followed and exclaimed in admiration. Framed in the doors of a tiny balcony sat a table with places for two. Candles lit the corners of the alcove and the table was beautifully spread with wine and dessert. She spied a small object resting on one of the chairs and walked over to see what it was. She picked up a red velvet box, decorated with a gold ribbon. Slipped under the ribbon was a piece of paper with her name written clearly on the top. 

Sarah was surprised and held the box up so that Damien could see it. "It has my name on it," she said uncertainly.

"Then I'm certain it should be fine for you to open it."

With trembling fingers, Sarah broke the seal on the note and read it. 

After a long moment, she put it down and then opened the clasp on the box. Damien's brows shot up as she lifted out a necklace so delicate the metal appeared to shimmer like liquid. Tiny crystals hung from the necklace at different points, giving it the appearance of dew hanging off of a spider web. Damien noticed that the necklace was reminiscent of the decoration on Sarah's wedding gown, only unlike the glass beads that had trimmed the gown, the crystals on the necklace seemed to flicker and dance with magic like tiny stars.

Sarah remained silent, but she clasped the necklace between hands that were shaking.

"May I?" asked Damien, indicating the note.

She nodded her permission and he read it once, then blinked and read it again.

_"Dearest Sarah,_

_I love you. _

Jareth" 

Toby had grown impatient. What the heck could Sarah be doing that would take so long and where had Damien disappeared to? Sighing, he dropped the deck of cards he'd been playing with and decided to do a little exploring of his own. Uncle Jar had promised to re-order time for him so that he could be back home for school on Monday but still spend a week with his sister in the Underground. Until this minute, he had always had someone with him during his visit to show him around and guide him from place to place. The castle was its own labyrinth and he thought a solo adventure might be fun. He'd waited long enough for his sister and Damien. Besides, they could always track him down with magic, right? 

The king often kept a crystal close by that showed him what Sarah was doing when he wasn't in the same room with her. When Toby had asked him about it, Jareth had said that he was responsible for Sarah's safety and comfort and that keeping a watch on her through his crystals was the easiest way to ensure her protection. Toby had accepted Jareth's explanation as a regular part of palace life, and he supposed that either Damien or Sarah was doing the same thing for him just so he wouldn't get lost. 

He walked out of the door and then stopped. He could go straight, but he had already come that way when he and Damien had walked to the study. So which way? Left or right? He could see some sort of pale illumination shining far down the hallway to his left. Left then. Without further hesitation, he strode down the hallway toward the light. 

Where would he have taken her? Jareth had traveled to the royal chambers, the solar, the library – even the kitchens – and had found no trace of either Damien or Sarah. On a hunch, he had even broken protocol and transported himself to Damien's private study, but while he was rewarded with the discovery of  the residue of recent magic, it was obvious that Damien and Sarah hadn't stayed there long. His brother was a careful bastard. He'd also placed a tracing block on their second transportation spell. 

Jareth was bordering on livid. It was true that he had asked for his brother's advice, but it was far outside of Damien's station to actively meddle in the private affairs of the king. 

Muttering curses, Jareth decided to transport himself to the family portrait gallery. Sarah certainly wouldn't be gracing him with her company for dessert this night. He felt a painful weight on his chest when he thought about the surprise he had so carefully prepared for her. Although he had practically heard his fingers creaking as he had let go of his pride, he had decided to take Damien's advice and be honest with Sarah about his feelings in the hope of repairing all the damage he had done. 

Thinking about their exchange in the dungeon was enough to make him want to zap some hapless goblin into oblivion. She had said she had once thought she could LOVE him. And now-

Jareth cut off his own thoughts of with a sharp sigh of exasperation. He didn't know what he was going to do now, but he might as well remove the candlelit table from the gallery before something burned down. If nothing else, Sarah would be safe with Damien and it was probably for the best if he allowed his fury just a few minutes to cool before he did any of the drastic things he felt like doing right at that moment.

In a shower of stardust, he appeared in the portrait gallery. He turned toward the alcove and instantly froze when he saw Sarah sitting at the table he had prepared earlier, head bowed into her hands. Damien was standing a little off to the side, as if he wished to keep a respectful distance from something too intimate for him to intrude on. In the back of his mind, it occurred to Jareth that it might be nice to conjure Damien straight into the Bog, but his attention was riveted on the beautiful woman in front of him, sable hair falling so that her face was hidden.           

Jareth saw a glimmer of something twined between her fingers and then realized that she held the necklace he had had made especially for her. If she had found the necklace then that meant…oh gods. He desperately wanted her to know, but not now and not like this. 

He breathed her name and Sarah looked up, eyes widening in surprise. She arose hastily, as if to flee and then stopped herself. With measured steps she walked slowly toward him, holding out the note.

"Is it true?" she asked, voice breaking on the last.

He looked into her eyes and found that he couldn't speak. Never had he felt so utterly naked in front of another human being. 

Wordlessly, he reached out his hand to her.

Sarah remained still, staring at him as if she had never seen him before. 

All of three of them heard the scream, thin and terrified, ring throughout the palace.

"Toby!" she cried, whirling away and down the hall.


	24. Of love and shadows

**Disclaimer:** Sadly, the only things I own in this story are Damien and the batch of gray ooze. Between the two, I have no doubts about the one I will put up for sale on eBay.

Chapter 24 

Sarah fled into the darkness as quickly as a thought, the brothers fast on her heels. She was so focused on her goal that she didn't even flinch when she felt a powerful arm encircle her waist and was instantly engulfed by the familiar warmth of a transportation spell. She opened her eyes to utter blackness, but felt an insistent mental tug…to her right. Instinctively she turned her head.

"You can sense him," Jareth's voice rumbled from behind her. He released her as she moved away, but kept a gentle grip on her fingers so that she wouldn't get lost in the darkness. 

The flash of a light spell from behind them heralded Damien's arrival.

"I feel…_something_. Can Toby call to me with his mind?" Sarah asked. She looked around worriedly, taking in the dank walls of what appeared to be another section of the dungeons.

"Not likely, since he isn't Fae," Damien answered. "But you are powerful enough to find him even if he can't cry out to you. We can 'hear' him too."

Sarah didn't hesitate and immediately strode toward the silent call her mind felt drawn to follow. She came to an abrupt halt as Jareth's hand clamped around her upper arm. 

"You're not stopping me," she hissed up at Jareth's impassive features.

"I'm not allowing you to plunge off alone into gods-know-what either. I will travel ahead first and make certain the way is safe."

"And I'll be right behind you," Sarah countered stubbornly.

Already exasperated, Damien broke in. "Fine! Jareth – you first, Sarah – follow after and I'll guard the rear. Now get moving!"

The trio edged through the dimness in the fragile light of Damien's spell, listening intently for the faintest sigh or rustle that would indicate that Toby was near. Jareth reached back to make certain Sarah was right behind him and was surprised to feel her fingers curl around his. She must be more frightened than he had thought. Squeezing her hand reassuringly, he forged ahead into the gloom. 

"No, wait," Sarah whispered, her grip on Jareth's hand tightening. "I feel something…here." She walked over toward the opposite wall and rested her fingertips against it, confused. She didn't see any openings.

Jareth curled his fingers around hers and moved her hand slightly to the left. Sarah gasped in surprise as her hand went straight through the wall. Of course! She shouldn't be surprised that Jareth's castle was its own mini-labyrinth! Damien moved in closer to the couple so that his light spell could further illuminate the hidden passage beyond the wall. The light wasn't bright enough to fall far ahead and so once again, the three of them cautiously moved forward into blackness. 

After several twists and turns the passage opened into a broader corridor and Sarah's stomach lurched sickly in recognition. They had come to the very spot where she had rushed into Damien's arms after she had fled from Jareth only a few short hours before.

 Jareth felt her stiffen behind him and wished to heaven that their entire night had gone differently. More than anything he wanted to take her into his arms and soothe her fears with gentle words, but he didn't think she would allow him to do so and forcing her to accept his comfort could only make the situation worse. With a sigh of resignation, he allowed her hand to drop.

Sarah instantly moved as far away from her husband as the circle of Damien's light spell would allow. She was humiliated to realize that she had still been clutching Jareth's necklace and his now crumpled admission of love in her free hand. 

Jareth noticed the twinkling necklace laced between her fingers and he breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Sarah, put the necklace on."

Her eyes flashed. Was this insufferable king who called himself her husband going to order her around even NOW?!

Damien saw the look on Sarah's face and tried to throw Jareth a warning glance, but his brother was too focused on Sarah to notice him.

The king was rapidly losing patience. "Sarah! I've woven every protection spell I could think of into that necklace! Now put it on!" He strode toward his wife and belatedly took in her tight lips and flushed cheeks. He stopped where he was and held up his hands imploringly, as if to assure her that he would not touch her. "Sarah…please. I don't want anything to happen to you. I don't know what I would do-" he cut himself off, unwilling to admit emotions that left him raw in the face of her fury.

Sarah felt her anger dissipate into confusion, but she decided that she didn't have time to think about it. "Fine. I'll put it on." As she lifted the necklace around her throat, she felt Jareth move behind her and lightly take the chain from her fingers. 

"Allow me," he murmured, fastening the clasp. As the chain fell from his hand, he couldn't resist giving Sarah's neck the lightest of caresses and was pleased when he felt her shiver. 

Sarah was shivering at more than the sensation of Jareth's touch. As soon as the necklace had been clasped around her throat, a feeling of peace and warmth stole through her – even though she was searching frantically for her brother in a setting she would have given almost anything to avoid. Apparently Jareth had laced his gift with more than protection spells. Blushing furiously, she tried to figure out what to do with Jareth's note, still crumpled in her hand. 

She turned slightly from her husband and praying he wouldn't notice, tucked the note into the bodice of her gown. The idea of putting Jareth's confession somewhere so intimate was unsettling, but her gown didn't have any pockets and she was short on other options. She might still be furious with the king, but throwing his first and only declaration of feelings for her on the floor seemed…well…wrong. 

Sarah's choice of location for his letter did not escape Jareth, and he was deeply pleased, though for once, he wisely remained silent. 

Sarah felt the tug on her thoughts again, although this time the call for her attention was much stronger and seemed more frantic…more frightened. Apparently the brothers had felt the same cry through their own minds, because both of them looked up sharply. 

Oh god. It was coming from that awful room.

Then all three of them heard it – a slow slithery hissing noise, like something moist being dragged across the floor. Sarah was the first to notice the light – gray and sickly – that didn't seem to be coming from Damien's spell.

"Damien, would you be willing to drop your light spell? Just for a second?" she asked.

Damien nodded and flicked his hand. They should have been plunged into darkness, but the faint glow emanating from the room of corpses was unmistakable. At least the illumination was enough that they could see the looks of dawning horror on each other's faces.

Jareth's features settled into a look of determination. "Stay back," he growled at the others and strode into the room. The feminine gasp from behind him as he entered the chamber told him that his wife had yet again ignored his orders.

The sight that greeted them was enough to make all of them break out in a cold sweat and reconsider dinner. The bodies that had been dead only an hour ago were _moving_. Great hulks of desiccated flesh slunk and stumbled around the room as if controlled by a clumsy puppeteer. The substance that Sarah had previously thought looked like a crystalline veil over all of the corpses was now slithering over the walls and part of the floor. No longer frozen, the gray ooze inched and wriggled over every surface like a net of fat, glistening maggots. 

Jareth ducked as the clawed paw from something that had once been furry swung blindly toward his head. The king muttered a curse and flame shot from his fingertips straight into the chest of the beast. What flesh the creature had left scorched and crackled; but even though its torso was seared open to the bone, it continued moving toward them with hulking, heavy footsteps. Jareth struck at the gruesome being again while Damien darted around Sarah to add his own magic to the fray. The monster shuddered and tumbled to the flagstones under the onslaught of their combined power, but it continued to move, crawling forward threateningly. 

Around the room, other creatures were heaving themselves off the piles along the walls and shambling in what seemed to be aimless arcs around the large chamber. One of the monsters stumbled over a small figure, lying prone in the corner and as it brushed it, the figure rolled slightly and started to move. Pale hands untouched by decay emerged from the shadows as the being hoisted itself to its feet.

"Toby!" Sarah's voice rang out in horror. She immediately rushed toward him only to halt mid-stride as he raised his gaze to hers. The eyes looking out of the thin, twisted face in front of her simply couldn't belong to her brother. His stare held the kind of chilling blankness that Sarah imagined a victim might see in the eyes of a murderer. "Toby…" She hesitated, pausing a few feet away from him.

"Sarah! I'm so frightened. Come closer. Don't let them get me!" His whisper was desperate, pleading, but something about the way he was looking at her kept Sarah rooted to the spot. 

"Everything is going to be okay. We're here now," she told him, trying to sound calm. What WAS that stuff crawling all over him? It looked like the same substance that coated the now animate monsters. Sarah shuddered as a tendril of shadow crept over Toby's lips and then over one open eye. The boy didn't appear to notice and lurched forward, walking toward Sarah with jerky steps.

"Oh god," Sarah breathed, taking a timid step backward.

Jareth and Damien incinerated the creature in front of them with a final blast of magic. Nearly reduced to powder from the impact, the creature's bones lay on the flagstones, smoking and falling delicately to pieces. The king looked up, immediately looking for Sarah and froze at what he saw. Toby, or what had once been Toby, was advancing on her, begging her to help him. One look at the boy's face, mottled with the shadowy sludge, was all Jareth needed to know the true intentions behind the boy's imploring words.

"Sarah! Get back!" the king shouted, striding over to snatch her away himself. 

"No, Sarah! I'm so scared! Don't leave me here! Please!" Toby cried, shoulders starting to shake with wild sobs.

Seeing her little brother crying in pure terror was more than Sarah could stand. All the love and care she had felt for him ever since he had been a baby trapped in the labyrinth rushed to the surface and she ran to him, gathering him up protectively. "It's okay! I'm here! I'll take care of you -" Her words were cut off in a gasp as Toby's arms tightened around her. 

The pain shooting through her body felt like a thousand mirrors had exploded – INSIDE of her. Flames licked along her nerves as she was driven to her knees in unreasoning, all consuming agony. Sarah was terrified that she would die. Sarah was terrified that she WOULDN'T die. Toby was only thirteen and had yet to be able to best her in any sibling rivalry or wrestling match, but his arms encased her now like blocks of granite. 

She opened her mouth to scream and felt a wet coldness snake over her lips and into her mouth, choking off her attempts to cry for help. The shadow-like substance slithering all over Toby was now crawling onto her in thick ropes. Her throat and hand felt like they were on fire as she attempted to shrug herself out of Toby's hold. Failing to throw her brother off, she reached for her magic, racking her brains for any spell she could use that wouldn't hurt him. 

In an instant, she was ripped from Toby's death grip and found herself resting against a blessedly warm, hard chest. She looked up into worried mis-matched eyes, and then was yanked sharply sideways as Toby lunged for them with a snarl. Jareth threw himself in front of her and smacked Toby back with a surge of power. Sarah tried to scream to Jareth not to hurt him, but her voice was still frozen. She sank to the floor, wracked by another paroxysm of pain as the king blocked a second attack from Toby. This time, she could see Jareth's magic hovering over them, like a shimmering dome of white light. Anytime her brother rushed at them, he was tossed back by the shield around them. 

After Toby was thrown to the ground a third time, he rose on shaky legs and approached Jareth's protective dome slowly. He edged as close as he could to the sparkling haze without touching it and then held up his hands. Wisps of shadow crept off his fingers and up and over onto the dome. Jareth gave a sharp cry as the shadow slowly spread itself from Toby onto their shelter, seeming to become darker and more menacing as it covered the haze. 

Toby was so absorbed in watching the shadow feed off of Jareth's magic that he didn't sense Damien as he circled softly behind him. The young boy was suddenly flung into the air, his mouth frozen in a silent scream. Sarah recognized the spell as the same one Jareth had used to freeze her gooserat. Her heart clenched in sympathy for her brother, but her thoughts of concern were cut off as she felt the bits of gray ooze that had previously crawled onto her begin to move. Every place the ooze touched felt numb and cold. She tried again to cry out to Jareth, but found that her voice remained useless. In fact she could barely move her lips…and yet they moved anyway. Something was moving them for her. 

"Jareth…" Her voice sounded hoarse and hollow in her own ears. 

The king turned and his eyes widened in shock as he gazed down at his wife. Sarah felt her whole body being pulled toward him as if she were a puppet on strings. The she realized that whatever was crawling over her WANTED her to touch Jareth. It wanted her to force the same agony on him that she had endured when Toby had held her. She felt the heat of Jareth's necklace singeing her neck and concentrated on it with all her might. He started toward her as if to take her in his arms and she flung herself back against the will of the shadow with all her might. Sarah gasped in pain as she hit the wall of the dome with a thud. The control of the ooze was strong and she hadn't gotten very far, but she remained out of Jareth's reach for the moment. She couldn't let this stuff touch him. 

Jareth looked at her with wounded eyes. "Sarah, I won't harm you! Please!! Let me help you!" 

She could tell that her reaction had hurt him, but she had to stay as far away from him as she could no matter what the cost. Vaguely, she could hear Damien shouting, trying to get Jareth's attention. Her body was wracked with another shattering flash of pain. This damn stuff was trying to get her to pass out so it could use her body any way it wanted to – she knew it. She concentrated again on her necklace and managed to stay conscious. Her engagement ring was burning her hand and she looked down to see it glowing brightly. The sludge that tried to slither over it literally evaporated on contact. Focusing on the heat from her ring and necklace seemed to help her regain a tiny measure of control over her own body. Her eyes felt glazed, but she forced them up to meet Jareth's and then flicked them to the left, toward Damien's voice. 

Damien heaped silent blessings on the queen as he finally garnered his brother's attention. Motioning to Jareth to pour more magic into the dome, he started attacking it from the top. Jareth instantly caught his drift and white light shot from his hands and into the now shadowy mess that covered the shelter around himself and Sarah. Bit by bit, the shadow that covered Jareth's magic froze in place and started to flake off. Damien maintained his end of the spell with some effort as he was forced to continually dodge the blindly flopping bodies that now crowded the floor around them. By the time Jareth was able to take down the magic shield without risking a downpour of sludge, Damien was drenched in sweat. Jareth was looking haggard himself, but still bent down to take Sarah into his arms. She tried again to move away, but her control was slipping. 

"Sarah, you have to let me. I have to get you away from here," he murmured, already resigned to her hatred of him. If she wouldn't leave willingly, he would have to forcibly bend her to his will again and was no longer certain of her forgiveness.  

Exhausted from her battle with the shadows that now covered her from head to toe, Sarah was powerless to resist as Jareth gathered her up against him. The king was so absorbed in rescuing his wife that he failed to notice her agonized glances toward Toby, still hanging in the air and frozen mid-scream. She watched, helpless, as a slender creature heaved itself from the shadows and toward the boy. As the light fell on its features, Sarah noticed that the figure approaching her brother was unnaturally pale and grinned to reveal gleaming teeth. Half its face looked like it had been burned off in some magical attack, but the prominent fangs on the thing didn't seem to have suffered any damage. Sarah tried again to leap from Jareth's arms as the vampire latched onto to her brother but the vise of pain that gripped her was too intense for her to fight. The creature sank its fangs into Toby's neck like a knife through butter. Jareth turned toward the door, still holding Sarah securely and caught a glimpse of Toby out of the corner of his eye. 

He acted without hesitation. 

The last thing Sarah saw as she slipped from consciousness was Jareth's fierce gaze as he unleashed a mighty swath of power straight at her brother. 

Damien desperately wanted a bath.  How he had managed to escape from the dungeon unscathed was beyond him, but after that terrifying encounter, he wasn't at all certain that twenty baths would be enough to make him feel clean again. 

They almost hadn't made it. He and Jareth had been so exhausted from the power it had taken to get Toby and Sarah out of there, escape alive themselves, and then seal the whole room off that even standing upright was now too much to ask. He slumped in a corner, watching his brother the king who was sprawled into another corner where he could keep a close eye on Sarah who was still sleeping on the bed. 

Damien suspected that the necklace was the thing that had kept her alive until they had escaped. Jareth had given that necklace to Sarah as an expression of his genuine love. Damien noticed that the sludge may have kept her from screaming, but it hadn't been able to take over every part of her body and settle in the way it had on Toby because the necklace had kept burning it away. Sarah's neck had red welts from where the glittering chain lay against it, but neither brother considered removing it wise. Fighting the shadow had been a battle for her; but thanks to Jareth's gift, she hadn't given in to it and the power of the necklace was still working to shore her up as she recovered.

As soon as Jareth had blasted the vampire attacking Toby to bits, Damien had grabbed the now re-animated boy and fled from the room fast on his brother's heels. Dragging Toby out had been a challenge. A vampire's bite held its own unique level of magic. Most of a vampire's victims simply perished, but those who didn't exactly die…

A moan from the bed brought Jareth to his feet. He had refused to let go of Sarah's hand ever since he and Damien had banished the last vestiges of the shadow from her body. His queen had been covered in the stuff by the time he had finally managed to transport her to safety. Blessedly, she had responded the instant Jareth had touched her with his healing spell and the terrified king had nearly broken down in gratitude. Within moments, the ropes of shadow had dissipated enough that he had been able to gather her fully into his arms. Stroking his hands through her hair, he had simply held her to him, all the love he felt for her pouring from his heart into his magic as he healed her. Even nearly unconscious, Sarah had _clung_ to him. As she had slipped her arms around his neck, the tendrils of shadow that had attacked him as he carried her to safety had fallen from his skin and then melted into nothingness.

Damien noticed the sudden demise of the gray ooze on his brother with a faint flicker of hope. Perhaps Sarah really did love Jareth after all? He could only imagine a love requited would have that kind of healing effect. Damien had stepped forward to add his own magic to Jareth's spell and had been pleasantly surprised as the bits of shadow that had managed to worm their way onto him fell into crystallized bits at his feet. 

"I don't think I can make it disappear completely by myself," Jareth had sighed, indicating the crunching bits of shadow at Damien's feet.

"I think I've been telling you _that_ all along," had been Damien's rejoinder as he had finally flopped into a corner, exhausted. 

Now Damien also arose to go to Sarah's side. He wasn't at all certain how she would take the news about her brother.

Her eyes cracked open and settled on Jareth. "Where is he?" she croaked.

"Darling…he's safe. For now."

Sarah struggled to sit up only to feel gloved hands push her back down and tuck the covers around her more snugly. 

"Don't move. I don't think I have the strength to heal you if you even so much as topple out of bed." Jareth was telling the truth. He looked awful. Dark circles ringed his eyes and his face was creased with worry. 

Sarah's chin took on the stubborn set that Damien knew meant trouble. He tried to intercede. "Perhaps we should prop her up on a few pillows? She might be more comfortable – wouldn't you, Sarah?"

The queen nodded and Jareth gave in with a sigh. After a moment, the brothers had her propped into a sitting position. Jareth reached for Sarah's hand again. She instinctively drew back, but then thought better of it and placed her hand in his. This man exasperated her like no one had ever done before him, but he had also healed her in her moment of need. Holding his hand wasn't so much to ask.

"Where is Toby? Is he all right? Jareth, I want to know everything that's happened." Sarah's voice was soft, but forceful. There was clearly no way she would settle for any gloss on the truth. 

"Toby is alive, love, but badly hurt. I'm keeping him in another room for the moment," Jareth replied. 

"Jareth, I want to go to him," Sarah stated firmly. "He needs me."

The king briefly dropped his face in his hands. He already knew what was coming. "Sarah, I'm sorry but I can't allow it. You're still healing and I'm afraid that seeing Toby wouldn't be safe for you."

Sarah bristled where she sat. He "couldn't _allow_ it"? She was absolutely sick of being told what she would and would not be "allowed" to do. She opened her mouth and leaned forward to give Jareth a piece of her mind, when she felt his note crinkle against her chest from where she had stuffed it down her bodice. Remembering his admission, she shut her mouth and tried to re-think the situation. She chose her words carefully, never dropping her eyes from his. "Jareth, Toby is my brother and I feel responsible toward him. It's important to me to see how he's doing for myself. I believe that you _mean_ well when you tell me that you won't let me see him, but I only get angry with you when you try to forbid me from doing what I want to do. I _am_ going to see my brother. If you think seeing him is unwise, I will listen to what you have to tell me first, but I will not 'allow' _you_ to tell me what I will and will not do."

Jareth's nostrils flared slightly, but he gave no other indication of his temper. He loved this woman with all of his heart and soul. He had given her _everything_ and she still defied him, still insisted that he treat her as if _she_ was the one who ruled his kingdom. For heaven's sake, it was as if she expected him to treat her as his EQUAL…

Oh.

Damien's advice seemed to echo through his mind. _"__Show her that she has no need to fear you. Treat her as your equal. Teach her about her powers. And, Jareth, - tell her how you feel."_

By the gods, he was _king_! No one had ever disobeyed him and ignored his every command in the way Sarah had! How could he change what he was – even for her? Jareth wanted to push her right back down on the pillows, warn her not to leave their bed and then lock her in, posting himself as her guard. One look into her blazing emerald eyes and he took a deep breath and reconsidered. Even when that shadow was poised to eat her alive, she had flung herself away from him. His chest clenched painfully at the thought that she loathed him so much that she would not even willingly accept his help when she was in danger.

"Very well," he growled. "I will take you to see your brother, but there are a few things you should know first."

"Tell me," she said, relaxing a little and taking his hand again.

Touched and surprised at her small gesture of trust, Jareth softened his tone. "Sarah, when you were attacked by the shadows, I was able to heal you as well as I did because you never gave yourself over to them. The necklace you are wearing was forged with every magical protection I could think of and those protections helped you to fight the evil and hold on to your own will. Toby's youth makes him more malleable than an adult. He was also without the benefit of any particular protection or even any magic of his own. I'm afraid the shadows did much more than physical damage to him."

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, gripping her husband's fingers more tightly. 

"I mean that Toby isn't who he was before the shadow attacked him. If it were only the power of the shadow, I might be less concerned, but he was also bitten by a vampire before we could rescue him."

"I remember…" Sarah breathed. Vivid memories of Jareth throwing some kind of violent magic at Toby rushed back to her. "You…you meant to kill him, didn't you?" She tried to remove her hands from his, but he wouldn't let her go.

"No!" the king cried, pulling her toward him. He urgently needed her to understand. "Sarah, I would never hurt Toby, but even I can't exactly run over to a newly created vampire monster, pick it up and box its ears!"

"Vampire _monster_?" she asked, growing pale.

"The bite of a vampire has its own kind of magic. Toby had already succumbed to the shadow and so it was that much easier for the vampire to make him one of its own."

Sarah's eyes were wide with horror. "Does that mean he's…dead?" she asked, forcing herself to say the word.

"Not exactly," said Damien, moving from where he stood to sit on the other side of the bed. "Toby was weakened by the shadows, and yes, the bite of the vampire has made Toby a creature of darkness as well. But since the boy wasn't already dead when the vampire drank from him and the vampire didn't have the time to drain him to the point of death, Toby didn't die. Rather, he became a living creature with the powers of the undead." 

Sarah looked back and forth between the brothers. "So what did you do with him?" she asked in a very small voice.

"He's being held in a locked cell – for his protection and for ours," the king replied.

"Not down there in the _dungeons_?!" she gasped.

Jareth was beginning to lose patience. "Sarah, I had nowhere else to keep him! I made certain that he has food, light, warmth and a bed to rest on. I won't have him staying anywhere near you until it's safe and at least in the dungeons I know that there's nothing he could find and use as a weapon later!"

"There's only that shadow sludge living a few doors down!" she cried, trying to rise off the bed.

"No, there isn't! I put him in a cell on the opposite side of the castle – not that it matters. Sarah, the darkness has already laid claim to him. Even if he were to stay in the same room with the shadows, it would make no difference now!"

"I want to see him," she said firmly.

"Then I will accompany you," the king replied coldly, "and we will see him together - AFTER you are better."

Jareth and Sarah locked eyes for a moment and then turned away to heaved weighty sighs at the same time. Damien was pleased to observe that both of them seemed good and tired of arguing.

"Can we compromise?" asked Sarah softly. "I visit Toby now – accompanied by both you and Damien. And I promise to stay well away from him. Jareth, it would mean a lot to me to see him for myself."

The king looked over at Damien who nodded. "Very well," Jareth reluctantly assented, lifting his queen into his arms. 

"I can stand up just fine-" Sarah started, but Jareth put a finger to her lips and whispered "shush". 

Startled, she obeyed and the three of them vanished in a flash stardust.

Seconds later, they reappeared outside a narrow passageway. Sarah shivered in the sudden change of temperature and Jareth pulled her closer against the warmth of his body. He carried her down the small corridor, followed by Damien until they reached a wooden door with a number of thick locks on it. A flick of Jareth's gloved hand and all of the locks snapped open, the door falling slightly ajar. The king pushed it fully open so that the three of them could look through the long bars of a second door behind the first. 

Toby rested gracefully on top of a thick, quilted coverlet on a narrow bed. Jareth had been true to his word and Sarah could see a small tray covered with fruits and cheeses as well as a wooden ewer filled with water sitting on the floor. The room was otherwise bare, but a light spell illuminated the space with a soft glow. Sarah could tell that the light spell was also producing heat, warming the otherwise dank stone of the walls and floor. 

The boy rose as he heard the outer door open, and walked closer to their little group. "Sarah!" he called. "I'm so glad that you came!"

Sarah stared at her brother in astonishment. He was beautiful in a pale and sylphlike way. His skin glowed with a milky clear paleness, all traces of adolescent acne gone. No longer did he move with the coltish clumsiness Sarah had observed in him as soon as he had hit puberty, but rather with a catlike grace she had only seen before among the Fae. He smiled radiantly and drew nearer to the bars, holding out his hands. Jareth still had his arm around Sarah's waist and lifted her neatly behind him and beyond Toby's grasp. 

She was poised to object, but changed her mind as Toby moved close enough for her to get a better look at him. Peering around Jareth's shoulder, she could see that everything about her brother seemed to be in gentle motion, like she was watching his very molecules swirl through the air. As she looked longer, she could see delicate traces of shadow swimming over every part of him, gliding through his hair like quicksilver and shimmering across his skin in subtle patterns. His eyes came to rest on her with greedy hunger. 

"Sarah, please come closer. Are you really there? I want to touch you," his voice took on a wheedling tone and he slipped his fingers through the bars.

Jareth responded to the boy's request by planting himself even more firmly in front of Sarah and tightening his hold on her hands.

She squeezed her husband's hands back reassuringly. "Is there anything we can do for him?"

A look of frustrated helplessness crossed Jareth's face. "I don't know. Honestly, I've never seen anything like this before. There are a few enchantments I could try, but I'm not sure Toby would survive them. Damien and I know for certain that our combined magic can freeze the shadow in its tracks, but thanks to that vampire, it's now part of Toby's blood. If I try to stop the evil from feeding off of him, it's possible that he'll die in the process." Jareth took a deep breath. He knew Sarah wouldn't like this one bit. "Love, I have no desire to harm Toby in any way. We could keep him here and I can attempt to cure him – which would mean risking his death – or I can banish him from my kingdom to the dark forest beyond where he'll live out his existence as he is now." Jareth looked down at his wife with tired eyes. He didn't know if he should simply give up. All of the fates seemed to have conspired to place him in impossible situations where anything he did would only make her hate him more.

"He can't do any harm down here, can he? We could keep him here until we found a way to cure him that we knew would be safe." There _had_ to be a way to save Toby. And what on earth was she going to tell their parents? Somehow she didn't think they would believe that their son had suddenly run off to join Cirque du Soleil, even if he now looked the part. 

"Sarah, I can't allow him to stay here indefinitely. He might be able to do some harm if left to his own devices long enough. My magic is powerful, but Toby now has plenty of his own power and I can't guarantee that I can keep him safely locked up forever. The inhabitants of the Underground rely on me for protection. I will not betray them – even for you."

Sarah pressed her lips together in a thin line. "Fine. You may not be able to guarantee his safety with your magic, but we haven't tried _mine._" She tried to slide past Jareth, but he caught her firmly around the waist and hauled her back. 

"Absolutely not." 

"Jareth, Toby's my brother! I can't just leave him like this! I know I'm as powerful as you are! If you and Damien can stop the shadow in its tracks just because you love each other, imagine what I can do for Toby! Jareth, I love him more than anything!"

Jareth snorted. "You're not going in there where you'll only get yourself killed!"

"I won't get killed!" she shouted, eyes spearing him as she tried to kick and claw herself free. She wasn't entirely sure of her words, but at this point, she was far too frustrated to be reasonable. 

Jareth released her waist so he could capture her hands before she scored his face. Quick as a blink, he twisted her wrists against her back, keeping them pinned in one hand while holding the rest of her against him with the other. 

"Jareth!" Damien cried. "This is no way-"

"This is the ONLY way!" Damien was cut off by Jareth's roar. "I will NOT let MY QUEEN run off willy-nilly to certain death!"

Damien was at a loss. He knew Jareth was right, but if Jareth forced Sarah away from her brother, the strife between them could only make the shadow's power stronger. He had to intercede. He only prayed Sarah would listen to him. "Sarah, stop fighting! Jareth is telling you the truth. You would only die if you tried to save Toby on your own."

Sarah stopped struggling long enough to look at Damien in dismay. He had been her sole advocate against Jareth and now he was siding with him against her! The thought of Toby dying in the Underground or spending the rest of his life in exile outside Jareth's kingdom renewed her determination and she twisted in her husband's grip, hoping to god that her struggles would distract him long enough that he wouldn't notice what she was about to do. "Jareth! Let me go! I won't let you do this to me anymore!" 

The king was so busy trying to keep his wife subdued that he didn't notice the tiny shot of magic she tossed toward the barred door. A simple spell - even simpler than a light spell. Sarah screamed to cover up the sound of the locks clicking open.

Jareth had had enough and swept her off her feet, preparing to transport her to the farthest wing of the castle. Sarah immediately stopped fighting and threw all of her concentration into another simple spell, usually used to light the logs in the fireplaces. She wouldn't need much magic…

She hit the floor with a groan when Jareth dropped her and then was instantly on her feet. Without giving herself time to think, she threw her weight against the barred door and tumbled into Toby's cell, belatedly taking in the satisfied smirk on the boy's face as the king gasped in pain, holding up hands that had already blistered through his gloves. The gray shadows on her brother's skin suddenly seemed thicker. Sarah tossed a glance over her shoulder and met Jareth's hurt-filled gaze. She had time to register surprise that his eyes were filled with sorrow instead of anger before Toby's hands closed softly around her throat.


	25. Terms of Surrender

**Disclaimer:** If they've appeared in a movie, they aren't mine.

**To my reviewers:** A sincere thank you for all of your comments, critiques and kind words. If you have an e-mail address listed on ff.net, I have tried to respond to you individually. If you do not have an e-mail listed, I have not responded to you, but I did read your comments and do truly appreciate them! Several of you have asked me if I was aware that my story was set to accept only signed reviews. I am aware, but thanks for the concern. If a person prefers not to register with ff.net, he or she can contact me at the e-mail address listed in my profile (and some of you have which is great)!

Chapter 25 

"She dies if you move, Goblin King."

Even Toby's voice was different – confident, bell-like. No hint of cracking anywhere. 

From her position on the floor, Sarah watched Jareth's face become a mask of helpless anguish. She opened her mouth to speak, but Toby's fingers around her throat tightened ever so slightly in warning, cutting off any sounds she might have made_. Think, Sarah! Think!_ her mind was screaming at her. What could Toby possibly want? Why not snap her neck and kill her on the spot?

The sickeningly familiar sensation of burning ice on her skin was her answer. Fat strands of shadow slipped from Toby's fingers along her cheeks and then over her hair and down her arms.  Through the sudden pain, Sarah noticed that the shadow had gone out of its way to avoid her necklace. Even Toby kept his grip on her higher up, just under her chin so that his hands did not brush the chain on her neck that glimmered in the dimness. She winced as the necklace added its own fire to the agony already licking over every nerve in her body. The red welts beneath it that Jareth had so recently healed flared again to crimson life along her collarbone. Sarah was amazed that her skin wasn't crackling off her neck in scorched bits. 

Scorched…skin. Of course.

She looked again at her husband. He seemed ready to howl his frustration as he remained frozen, burnt hands lifted in the air. Technically Toby was still living and she hoped that meant her spell would hurt just enough…

Sarah reached for her magic. Enchantments like the one she was about to use took so little power, that most people didn't even notice them before they were performed.

Toby leapt back with a cry, his own hands smoking and blistering in the gloom. Jareth took advantage of the boy's moment of distraction to make a beeline for his queen and was shocked when she stumbled away into the opposite corner of the cell, beyond his grasp.

She saw the look of dismay in his eyes and tried to explain, only to feel that damn sludge slide into her throat again before she could squeak out a word. Sarah was no longer merely frightened. She was furious. This awful shadow stuff wanted to kill Toby and Jareth – her _family_! And it was using their love for each other as its most powerful weapon! 

Sarah was so shocked that she had actually included the words "love" and "Jareth" in the same thought that the king almost managed to capture her on his second dive. Fighting the sludge with every ounce of her free will, she ducked and rolled away from him into the center of the room. She crashed against something lumpy and looked up at Toby's malicious smirk as she rested against his boots. The boy's grinning lips now revealed sharp fangs and his smile widened in satisfaction as he observed the ropes of shadow criss-crossing over Sarah's face and arms. 

"Sarah, give in. Stop fighting and allow the shadows to heal you. We'll be together forever, you and I." The boy reached down and lifted Sarah to her feet with surprising strength. His fingers slipped around her throat again, almost like an affectionate caress as he lifted a lock of hair from where it had fallen into her eyes. He looked pointedly at Jareth and gave Sarah's neck another light squeeze as a warning for him to remain still before turning his full attention back to his sister.  "Look what he's done to you," Toby crooned, indicating the king with a sneer. "He's tricked you into a marriage you never wanted, into a lifetime of fear. He forces you to do anything he wants – even give up your family -your own flesh and blood - and for what? So you can be his slave for the rest of your life? So he can terrify you into doing whatever he tells you to? Sarah, the Underground needs a new king, a just king. We could rule together – sister and brother – for as long as we like. You would never need to be afraid of anything or anyone ever again."

Toby's voice was low and hypnotic and Sarah felt her eyelids growing heavy. Sleeping sounded so lovely. In fact, anything that would dull the pain of the shadows slowly slithering over her waist and torso sounded lovely. The chain around her neck seared her with an intense burst of heat and she was jarred back to awareness. Her eyes opened to look directly into her brother's. What she saw there was enough for her to yank her will and consciousness back under her control. Toby had inched closer to her as he had been speaking, and she now felt his breath on her neck, his lips grazing dangerously close to her jugular. 

The necklace burned her again and this time she winced, drawing back slightly from her brother. It was almost as if the magic were trying to tell her something…

She smiled, giving Toby the full effect of her most joyful, trustworthy, sisterly smile. Slowly she reached up with one hand to ruffle his hair and he let her. Pulling him nearer, she rested her forehead slightly down and against his and said, "You're right. I don't want to be afraid anymore, Toby. And I never, ever want to lose you."

The young boy's entire face lit up with a gleeful, predatory light as he moved his lips closer to Sarah's throat.

Jareth had never felt so helpless in his entire life. He wanted to pick up his wife and shake some sense into her after he had killed that murderous brat of a boy once and for all. He was physically twitching with the need to do just that, but Toby had been certain to keep him well within view and never once moved his hand from Sara's throat. Jareth prayed to the gods that he could find a way to rescue her in the next two seconds before she was either dead or lost to the shadows forever. He blinked in disbelief and then felt his chest grow tight with agony as he listened to his wife practically _invite_ Toby to bite her. Had life with him as a husband really been that miserable for her? Had he frightened her so much that she would resort to _anything_ to escape him? 

Perspiration broke out on Sarah's forehead as she tilted her neck so that Toby would have better access to her veins. He wasn't quite tall enough to get to the spot she guessed he was going for and she had to scrooch down on her knees a little so he could reach, careful to keep her weight balanced evenly. Her concentration was absolute. She knew her timing had to be perfect. 

The barest prick of his teeth against her skin was the cue she had been waiting for and she slammed her shoulder up against his collarbone, causing his mouth to dip just low enough to come into contact with her necklace. With an ear-shattering scream, the boy reeled back from her, face twisted in rage at her betrayal. His lips were cracked and blistering from the contact and the point of one of his fangs appeared to have been broken off entirely. 

Sarah tried to stumble out of her brother's reach, but the pain from the shadows slowed her down and Toby was on her in an instant, fumbling through the dark masses of her hair in an attempt to reach her throat. Jareth and Damien both seized the opportunity to spring into action.

As soon as Toby had grabbed her, Sarah felt him lifted off of her and then heard him land on the bed, the sharp residue of her husband's magic acrid in the air. She tried to toss her hair out of her eyes to find Jareth, but felt herself yanked backward and out of the cell by a pair of powerful hands. She whirled in Damien's arms as she felt his healing spell already working on the bits of shadow that by now had formed a web over the top half of her body. 

"No! Go to Jareth!" she gasped, fighting against Damien's strength even as he worked to heal her. "Damien, please! I can make it on my own! You have to help him! He _needs_ you!!"

Damien stopped and shook her hard. "No, Sarah! The king needs YOU. Now let me heal you enough so that we can both be there for him."

Stunned into silence, Sarah let Damien finish his spell and was relieved when the agonizing pain that had spread through her entire body settled down to a dull throb. Damien's magic didn't seem as powerful against the sludge as Jareth's had been. Her body still ached everywhere and she noticed frozen bits of the stuff coating her skin and hair like tiny icicles. Brushing the ooze off as well as she could, she whirled at the sound of a crash from inside the cell. 

The sight that greeted her eyes was enough to make her cry out in horror. Her brother had somehow managed to upend the narrow bed in the corner of the room and toss it on top of Jareth. The king lay pinned beneath the heavy bed frame, throwing spell after spell to keep the boy back. The feral sneer on her brother's face rendered him nearly unrecognizable as he circled the king, looking for any opening or angle he could use for another attack. Jareth was so busy simply holding Toby at bay that he could not afford the concentration it would take to free himself from the weight of the bed. His face was contorted in pain and Sarah could see sweat beading his brow from the effort of fending the boy off. 

Damien swore and stretched out his hand. Immediately the bed slid off of Jareth. Damien was dying to throw the frame right back at Toby, but didn't think the rift between Jareth and Sarah could ever be healed if her brother ended up crushed into a pulp for the sake of the king. 

Jareth tried to stand and instantly collapsed, his left leg twisted sideways at an impossible angle. Toby only laughed gleefully and crawled over the king's body like an animal stalking its prey. Jareth smothered a cry as Toby rested his full weight on top of the broken leg and bounced slightly. 

Sarah knew her magic had been badly weakened by her encounters with the shadow sludge, but she did not hesitate. Without a word, she stepped into the cell and flung her remaining power straight at Toby, lifting him off the king and tossing him onto the floor. Jareth's brow furrowed in concentration as he added his own power to Sarah's, using his free arm and good leg to back slowly away.

Sarah gave a startled gasp as soon as she felt Jareth's stream of magic twine with hers. She had tasted his power in small doses during their lesson that day, but nothing could have prepared her for this level of intimacy. His consciousness merged with hers like a brilliant swath of light as they both threw everything they had left at the shadows still covering her brother.  For one piercing instant, she could sense Jareth's feelings as if they were her own. 

She nearly dropped her assault against Toby in her shock. The king stared up at her with his own look of mingled hope and disbelief before a thin wail from the young vampire drew their concentration back to the task at hand. 

The boy hung suspended in the air as their combined streams of magic wove over and around him like a web. His limbs flailed violently, tangled in a mixture of shadow and light that seemed hell-bent on tearing him to pieces. Sarah couldn't believe the energy that kept flowing out of her toward Toby, even as her knees buckled from the strain and she sank to the floor a few feet from Jareth. She could sense the king's worry as he attempted to shore her up through their joined power, but she shrugged his efforts off, redirecting everything to her brother. She glanced over at Jareth, still reeling from what she had sensed from him when their minds had so briefly touched. His eyes met hers and what she saw in them made her shiver. 

A violent shriek split the air as light shot from Toby's eyes and mouth and he crumpled to the ground where he lay very still. 

By now, Sarah was so drained that she couldn't even crawl to her knees to see if Toby was still living. The last thing she felt was a gloved hand closing over her own and a dull pain as her head hit the flagstones.

Hours later…

Sarah was certain she was being burned alive. Icy flames licked over every inch of her skin as she writhed in agony. She had to get away, had to find a way to put the fire out before she died. She tried to move but was stopped by something heavy wrapped around her waist. Her hands fluttered over her restraint, clawing at it weakly only to be captured in one warm, gentle hand.  

"Shh…hold still." A second set of hands brought a cup to her mouth and cool liquid wetted her lips. She drank greedily wondering how the water could be so cool if her body was on fire. After she had drunk all she could, someone wiped a damp cloth over her face and neck. The flame-like pain abated slightly. Wasn't she burning? Where was she? How had she gotten there?

A few more swipes with the damp cloth and she didn't care. The fire inside her still raged, but the motion of the cloth over her skin brought some small relief. She felt someone loosen the ties on whatever gown she was wearing, exposing more of her neck and shoulders. Should she protest? What was happening? The delicious coolness of the cloth returned, gliding over her exposed skin and she ceased to fight. The hand imprisoning her wrists released them and then stroked her long hair back and away from her face. 

"Jareth…" she murmured, not even wondering why she would call his name.

"I'm here," his voice answered. 

She drifted again into blackness.

The second time Sarah awoke she had the strength to crack her eyes open a bit. The weight was still around her waist, but now she recognized her restraint as nothing more than an arm holding her close. Slowly, she eased her hands down until they came into contact with the fingers curved around her; skin tingling pleasantly as she brushed ungloved hands.  He stirred behind her and turned her body gently so that she could face him. 

"Jareth…" she breathed, relieved to see him alive. A shy smile touched her lips as she remembered how hard he had worked to protect her in the dungeons. Her husband might be the most difficult man in the Underground, but she knew he had also been her salvation this night. 

His lips twisted strangely as she looked at him and then he suddenly buried his face in her hair, engulfing her in his embrace. His arms tightened around her as he kissed her eyebrow, then her cheek, and then her hair. He seemed to be shaking uncontrollably and after a moment, Sarah realized he was sobbing. Worried, she ran her fingers through the long golden strands that fell against his neck, murmuring soothing words to comfort him any way she knew how.

After a few minutes, he was able to speak, although his words still came in choked gasps. "Ah gods…my Sarah…I thought I had lost you…oh love…" He kissed her then with a wild tenderness, running his hands over her body as if to make certain she was real and breathing. "Sarah, I love you so much. Without you…I can't even imagine…" Again, he broke down.

Sarah lay stunned. Jareth's written declaration of love to her had been one thing, but holding him as he wept in her arms because he thought…what? Just how close to death had she come? And speaking of death, where was Toby? Her eyes flew wide at the thought of her brother. How could she have forgotten him? How long had she been like this?

"Toby!" she gasped, trying to sit up in Jareth's arms. 

Gently, he pulled her back down against his chest. "Safe," was his reply. 

For now, Jareth's assurance was enough. A sudden wave of weakness overcame Sarah and she fell limply against her husband, listening to his heartbeat. 

"Jareth," she whispered. "Thank you."

He bent his head to hers as if searching for something, his eyes unsure. Wordlessly, she cupped his face in her hands and pressed her lips to his.

Moved beyond speech at Sarah's first willing gesture of care for him, Jareth possessively gathered her closer, watching over her as she slipped back into dreaming. 

Damien cracked the door open from where he had slipped outside after Sarah had awakened a second time and peeked discreetly into the room. He started forward in alarm as he saw the tracks of tears on his brother's cheeks. In his entire life, he had never once seen Jareth cry, and if Jareth had actually allowed himself to break down then that could only mean…

Jareth's radiant smile stopped him in his tracks.

"She's going to live," the king whispered, his voice breaking on the last. 

Damien's face split into a gigantic grin and he did a silent jig right where he stood, sloshing water over his boots from the basin he was carrying. The wetness soaking through to his feet caused him to remember himself and he asked, "Do you need help cooling her down again?" 

"No, I think she's going to be just fine," Jareth chuckled, feeling giddy with relief. "And the boy? How is Toby faring?"

Damien's brow darkened. "As well as can be expected I suppose. I think he'll survive, but recovery won't be easy for him – at least not until both you and Sarah can work together to heal him."

"Is the shadow still contained?"

"For now."

Jareth nodded. He was still wrestling with the idea that only his magic and Sarah's combined would be able to reverse the damage inflicted by the shadow. He resented the idea of placing Sarah in danger at all – let alone after she had only just recovered from an attack and magical draining that had nearly cost her life. Losing her was absolutely unthinkable. If he was honest with himself, he knew he was still furious with her for having risked her life at all, but she clearly loved Toby as much as he loved Damien. She was also the most stubborn person he had ever known. Could he really have expected any other course of action from her?

The king sighed deeply and Sarah stirred in his arms. He and Damien exchanged a glance and Damien crept quietly from the room, dousing the lamps so that all three of them could get some much needed rest. 

Truth to be told, Damien could barely keep his eyes open. He had used nearly all of his available magic to heal Jareth so that the king could help him haul Sarah and Toby out of the dungeons and into more comfortable surroundings. He had been deeply worried for Sarah. Although the queen was incredibly powerful, her abilities were still raw and untrained. She had yet to learn how to pace herself to avoid the risks of losing too much life energy in a single spell. In the dungeons, she had thrown all of her magic into saving Toby without a thought to the consequences. 

Gods, if Sarah had died…

Damien was torn. He knew that Sarah's actions had nearly cost the kingdom its only defenders, but she didn't yet believe in her own role in protecting the Underground. Had he been in Sarah's position and the life at stake had been Jareth's instead of Toby's, would he have acted any differently? With an irritated snort, Damien admitted to himself that he would not.

Ah well. They all needed healing. They all needed sleep – particularly himself since he knew he faced the daunting task of convincing the two most stubborn, independent people he knew that the fate of the Underground hinged on their teamwork. _Gee, Damien, we're sure you enjoyed getting the stuffing kicked out of you by a roomful of rotting monsters and a pubescent vampire – why not try to tame a rhinoceros with a safety pin in the morning?_

Stumbling into his bed at last, Damien promised himself a lengthy vacation far, far away from romantic angst and angry undead rotting things. Mmmm…maybe Elvin country? The ruler of that region of the Underground had been particularly attentive to Damien during her last visit to Jareth's court. Yes…and her mouth had tasted delicious too. With a grin, Damien conjured a dream spell for himself before drifting off.  Even if she was no more than a dream fragment, he needed to spend time with at least ONE person who could listen to reason. Very pleased as his dream began with a reasonable proposition on his part and an equally reasonable acceptance on hers, Damien gave himself up to sleep.

Morning broke over Sarah like glass breaking over her head. The fire in her body was gone, but her head was throbbing and she felt nauseous. She vaguely supposed she was experiencing the magical equivalent of a three-day hangover. She rolled her face away from the light streaming through the curtains with a groan.

"I should send you to live in the goblins' quarters for risking your life like that, but it seems you've been punished enough," Jareth's voice rumbled from behind her. 

Sarah reached up to swat at him, but he caught her hand and kissed her fingertips before tucking her arms safely under the covers where she couldn't reach him without fumbling through three blankets. She tried to glare at her husband, but couldn't work up the strength to look appropriately frightening. With another groan, she rolled back over and decided not to bother.

"Not so fast – you need to drink this first," said Jareth, holding a cup under her nose. The contents of the cup smelled vaguely like the Bog and Sarah instinctively drew back. Her husband had seemed so worried for her only a few hours before. Surely he wouldn't actually force her to drink the sludge from that infernal stench pit? He brought the cup closer to her lips and she shook her head vigorously.

He looked wounded. "Sarah, Sarah, – still so untrusting. As I've told you any number of times, I would never harm you." His young queen still looked doubtful and Jareth let out a heavy sigh. "Love, drinking this of your own free will be so much easier for you than the alternative." Sarah looked mutinous, but when he raised his hand to pinch her nostrils shut, she grudgingly gave in.

"All right, all right, but if this turns me into a goblin, I'll be the first to raid your closet and play dress-up."

The king laughed. "You can raid my closet any time you like. You're rather fetching in my clothes."

Sarah looked down and blushed to see that what she had taken for a gown in her delirium was actually one of Jareth's shirts. The ties that had been loosened to cool her down still hung open, giving the king a lovely view of most of her breasts. She knew he wasn't looking at anything he hadn't seen before, but she felt embarrassed anyway and drew the collar of the shirt closed around her neck as best she could. 

"Now drink up," Jareth insisted, once again pressing the cup against her lips. "It's only a few herbs."

Sarah squinted her eyes and pinched her nose shut with one hand as she drank the liquid as quickly as she could without retching. The stuff tasted like a combination of Drano and mud and it was everything she could do to keep it down, but after a few minutes of lying still trying not to gag, she had to admit that she had started to feel much better. After a few more minutes, her headache had disappeared completely and she actually felt hungry. She flicked her eyes up at Jareth who was still sitting on the edge of the bed next to her and looking smug.

"All better?" he purred.

"I guess…yeah," she muttered. 

The king stifled a grin and then rang for breakfast. After only a moment, one of the brighter goblins scampered in carrying a tray laden with a steaming platter of eggs, sausage and warm bread. Sarah's stomach growled audibly and she flushed in embarrassment as Jareth helped situate the tray on her lap. For a moment or two, she ate in silence, trying to come to grips with everything that had come to pass over the last twenty-four hours. 

"I take it your breakfast is to your liking?" Jareth asked looking pleased to see her eating. 

Sarah nodded, mouth full. After a moment of chewing, she was able to speak. "Thank you, Jareth," she whispered, suddenly shy. During the brief moment their minds had touched when they had combined their magic against Toby, Sarah had actually experienced Jareth's feelings – including his feelings for her. Even after finding his note and the necklace, she hadn't fully understood the depth of what he had confessed. She felt awkward and a little humbled now that she knew just how deeply he did love her. The entire idea that he _would_ love her was so strange and unexpected that she felt toppled off balance. _And if I know how he feels for me, then he must know…_

Sarah lowered her eyes. She had never truly hated Jareth, but he had to know how bitter she had grown struggling against his constant efforts to keep her under his control. Beneath her anger and frustration, she supposed she did care for him – maybe even more than she wanted to admit – but his seeming treatment of her as no more than his property had left her hurt and disillusioned. 

She looked up from her breakfast to find Jareth watching her intently. 

"When you've finished, I'll take you to see Toby. I know you must be very concerned for him." 

"How is he?" she asked, her face clouding with worry.

"He's still alive, but he needs further healing. Damien is convinced that you and I must heal him together."

"Does that mean combining our magic – like we did in the dungeon?" Now that she knew what would happen, Sarah felt uncomfortable at the thought of opening herself to Jareth so completely again. If combining power was the only way to make her brother well, she would do it without hesitation, but she didn't want to be forced to reveal her confusion to her husband. 

"Yes." Jareth paused for a moment. He sensed his wife's hesitancy and longed to reassure her in some way. He knew that the sudden joining of their minds had to have been rattling for her. Gods! It had been rattling for _him_. He had expected to feel her hatred and her fear of him, but the current of affection that ran so deeply had been much more than he had hoped for. He shuddered to think how he must have hurt her by behaving as carelessly as he had. For the first time, he now felt a spark of hope that she might one day return his feelings.

"Take me to Toby…please," Sarah said, pushing her tray to the side.

Jareth looked as if he were on the verge of speaking, but turned away at the last moment. "Of course," he replied, sweeping his robe over her shoulders. Sarah slid her arms through the sleeves and then belted the robe tightly around her waist. The king offered his arm for support as she fumbled to put her feet into a pair of slippers and she flushed slightly as she leaned in close to him.  She hadn't expected her legs to feel quite so wobbly and was forced to grab onto his arm so that she wouldn't fall over. Jareth made a clicking noise with his tongue as she righted herself with his help and then swept her up into his arms before she could protest. 

"I can walk-" she started, but Jareth interrupted her.

"No, you can't. Love, you'll need every bit of strength you can muster if you're going to attempt to heal Toby. You're not fully recovered yet and I will not risk losing you again."

Sarah's eyes grew wide at the commanding king who held her, the stony look on his face a clear warning that discussion was not an option. She settled against his chest as he carried her down the corridor and decided to wait this argument out. She would decide how much more she could afford to be drained after she had seen her brother's condition for herself.

After a few minutes they arrived in front of a small wooden door in one of the side passageways. Why had Jareth tucked Toby so far away from everyone else? Surely he should have placed him closer by in case Toby needed them? The king set Sarah lightly on her feet and then opened the door.

Sarah peered through the dimness and saw a small figure lying in the middle of an enormous white bed. As they entered, a cowled healer stood up from where he had been sitting in the shadows, and bowed deeply to Jareth. 

"Any change?" asked the king.

"No, your majesty. I have not left his side once, and all through the night he has cried out and wept in his dreams."

Jareth dismissed the healer and slipped his arm protectively around Sarah's shoulders as she moved closer to look at her brother.

Toby lay on his side; his face partially nestled into the pillows. To Sarah's enormous relief, his acne was back. With his mussed hair, he looked almost like a normal, healthy adolescent, but as she examined him closer, she noticed that his skin was tinged lightly gray as if all of the blood in his body had become pieces of shadow. No wonder Jareth had wanted him far away from others.

"Is it still possessing him?" she whispered, leaning closer to Jareth. 

"Not in the sense that it is still controlling him, but it is draining the life from him. Soon, he will be nothing more than a crystallized husk."

"A husk?"

"The shadow eats away at its victims until the soul dies and the body becomes a shell that falls to dust at even so much as a breeze."

"Then why did you wait so long to bring me here if I could help him?!" she rasped, on the edge of tears. "Can I even save him now?"

"WE can save him – you and I together. I waited so long to bring you because you nearly _died_ from fighting the shadow yourself. Sarah, I will not lose you. This kingdom cannot live without you. _I_ cannot…" he trailed off and bowed his head into his hands, turning away.

Sarah felt her temper rising, then remembered their brief moment of connection in the dungeon and checked the angry words about to spill off of her tongue. Instead, she placed her hand on his shoulder and said "Jareth, I'm sorry. I know you were only concerned for my welfare."

The king stood frozen for a moment before he turned swiftly and engulfed Sarah in a fierce embrace. Sarah was taken off guard, but soon relaxed in his arms, resting her head against his shoulder. 

"Love," he murmured against her hair, "I began…badly. I don't know if you can forgive me or not, but I was hoping that we might…start again…if you agree…"

Sarah looked into his eyes from where she remained clasped against him, again struck by the level of pain she saw there. She held his gaze for a long moment before making her reply.

"I will agree – but on my terms."

Jareth frowned, then caught himself. At this point he could see why Sarah might wish to set the terms for repairing the damage between them. And she had _agreed_ to try. That in itself was a miracle he could not dismiss. "Name your terms," he said softly, running a stray lock of her hair through his fingers.

"I scarcely know you. I scarcely know anything about the kingdom I'm to rule at your side. I'd like to have a little space of my own for awhile so that I can settle in and adjust."

"What do you mean?"

"I'd like my own bedroom for the time being."

"You refuse to share my bed?" Jareth swallowed painfully. 

"For now, yes." Sarah watched the struggle on the king's face as he wrestled with the idea of allowing her a separate space.

Finally, he spoke in a strangled voice. "If your own chamber is your wish, then you shall have it, but, Sarah, please consider this – if our marriage is perceived as being weak, there are those who will think my government of the Underground is weak as well. Could I persuade you to use the room adjoining our chamber for as long as you feel you must?"

She considered his words and nodded. "That sounds like a fair compromise."

Gently he caressed her cheek with one ungloved hand, feeling her shiver as his magic played over her skin. "I eagerly await the day you no longer wish for walls between us."

Sarah made no reply, but nodded again. Taking a deep breath, she made her second request. "In addition to my own room, I want your solemn promise to teach me everything about my powers. What I don't know has already caused more than enough problems. I need to learn how to control what magic I have so that I can use it for the benefit of our kingdom."

"Consider it done," Jareth agreed immediately. Any time he spent teaching her about her abilities was time spent in her company and time he could use to gain her trust. "Is that all?"

"No, I have one more condition. I want to rule with you as an equal partner in running our kingdom. I do truly love the Underground and could never be satisfied sitting by and merely playing hostess at your banquets and balls. You kidnapped me from my home to keep me with you and I agreed to marry you so that I could see my family, but Jareth, if you truly wish me to stay with you as your queen, then I ask to be your queen in truth, not just in marriage."

The king remained silent for a long time, just gazing down at her as he held her in his arms. Sarah wasn't certain, but she could have sworn she saw…pride…in his eyes as he looked at her. 

Finally he spoke, "Sarah, I've never had a partner in government before. I…can't promise I'll be the easiest man to rule with. But I do love you and I do want you with me always and by my side…in everything."

Sarah gave her husband a shy smile. "Shall we see if Damien was correct?"

"About?"  
  


"This," she breathed, twining her fingers through his and directing a stream of magic at Toby. Instantly the floodgates of connection were opened again and the two felt the shock of exposure as their feelings were bared. Sarah felt Jareth's love and eager hope wash over her as they concentrated their power on the young boy, looking so small and vulnerable in the giant bed. 

Already feeling the strain of yet another session battling the shadow, Sarah beckoned to Jareth who supported her as she moved to sit on the covers next to her brother. Tenderly, she gathered Toby into her arms, stroking his hair. Jareth moved to sit behind the boy, so that Toby was held between the two of them, wrapped into the force of the magic that flowed through them and into his body. 

Once again sensing Sarah's struggle between fear of him and her growing love, Jareth wrapped his arms more tightly around Toby so that he could draw his young queen even closer. A burst of affection welled up inside Sarah as she sensed the king's regret and his sincere desire to make amends. Toby stirred between them then and Sarah was focused again on her love for this boy who had followed her around through their childhood, making her mud pies and remembering her birthday with crazy hand-drawn cards. Tenderly she smoothed his hair and kissed his forehead murmuring that everything was going to be okay.

Jareth couldn't help but smile as he watched Sarah and imagined her with their son or daughter in years to come. He had married a truly amazing woman.

As the light of the day lengthened along the flagstones, they watched as the gray laced through Toby's blood gradually evaporated into nothing and his cheeks regained their color. At last, Toby's blue eyes opened bringing a small cry of joy from his sister. "Sarah?" he croaked. "Where am I? I had the craziest dream…"

Jareth and Sarah swapped grins.

"Did we get to be in your dream?" Sarah asked innocently.

"Uh…yeah," Toby muttered, suddenly embarrassed as he realized he was trapped in a group hug. He hoped that Sarah and Jareth realized he was too old for this stuff. He caught sight of Sarah's necklace, peeking from the collar of her robe and started violently.

"Sarah – I dreamed that necklace burned me right…here." He reached up and touched his now fully healed lips. "I…that was _real _wasn't it? Oh my god – I tried to KILL you didn't I? Oh Sarah, I'm so sorry!" Toby looked ready to burst into tears.

"Shh! It's all right, my young man," Jareth's voice soothed from behind him. "You had no control over what you were doing. You weren't the one who was actually trying to kill us."

Toby whirled to stare at the king. "You too! What happened? What did I do?!" he cried.

"_You_ didn't do anything – except go exploring by yourself, " Sarah cut in. "And after the many mistakes that were made yesterday, I don't think anyone is going to point a finger at you." 

Sarah shot an apologetic glance at Jareth over Toby's head and the king realized that she was trying to tell him she was sorry. 

Sarah returned her gaze to Toby and continued ruefully, "Some of us ran off into magical situations that were a little more than we could handle without listening to those with more experience."

"But you saved me," the boy countered stubbornly, not willing to let his sister take any blame for anything that had happened.

"Yes, she did," Jareth agreed, moving to stand in front of the two on the bed. "Now, Toby, you've had nothing to eat since yesterday." The king rang a bell and a tiny goblin scampered into the room and stood at attention. "Now I want you to follow Grog straight into the kitchen where Cook has my orders to make you anything you like."

The boy nodded eagerly and ran off after the goblin leaving Sarah and Jareth alone.

"This isn't over, love, - you know that?" Jareth whispered, wrapping his arms tightly around his queen. 

"Oh I certainly hope not," she laughed, surprising him with a genuine smile. "We have a dungeon full of rotting bodies and shadow sludge to conquer."

"That wasn't what I meant," he purred, running his hands lightly over Sarah's body.

"Of course there's more," Sarah countered, still grinning merrily. " I can't wait to see the look on Damien's face when you tell him he was right the whole time."

Sarah giggled at Jareth's mortified expression and whirled away from him, dashing out the doorway and down the hall toward their chambers. She was too weak from healing Toby to get very far before she felt herself lifted off of her feet and nestled firmly against Jareth's chest.

"And you think I'll tell him where you'll be able to watch?" he growled playfully.

"Well, if you don't mind letting me out of your sight long enough so I can fight the shadow sludge by myself and steal all the credit for saving the kingdom…"

"Never." Jareth crushed his lips against Sarah's, effectively silencing further arguments.

For a few minutes at least.

Author's Note:

THIS IS NOT THE END!! So don't go getting your hopes up.

  
  



End file.
